BIG FIRE IN STATE FOREST

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 80, 28 December 1940, Page 12

BIG FIRE IN STATE FOREST

660 Acres Of Pines Swept POLICE INVESTIGATING CAUSE (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, December 27. Two areas of pinus insignis plantation covering a total area of 660 acres were swept by fire in Canterbury this afternoon. One was an area estimated at 500 acres or more of pine plantation in Eyrewell State Forest, north of Waimakariri River. The outbreak, the cause of which is not ascertainable, was reported at 1.35 p.m., and required the efforts of 70 firefighters to bring it under control after almost nine hours.

At 10.30 o'clock tonight the fire was stated to be in hand, and it was thought that all further danger of its spread was passed. Eyrewell Forest comprises about 24,000 acres, so that the work of the gangs had to be directed against any major spread. The Conservator of State Forests at Christchurch, Mr. R. H. Murray, said that the problem had been to confine the fire to a narrow strip along the outside of the plantation, but in this the gangs had been successful. About 110 acres of the Selwyn Plantation Board’s afforestation area at Bankside were completely destroyed. The trees burned were three, four and five-year-old pines, the cost of replacing which will be about £5OO. Plantation board employees, railway workers and neighbouring farmers worked hard to get the fire under control. Police are investigating the cause of the fire, which is thought to have been started by careless picnickers.