DAY OF TRAGEDY

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 40, 17 February 1932, Page 8

DAY OF TRAGEDY

VICTORIAN BUSH MEES

TEACHER'S SACRIFICE

STORIES OF HEROISM

(From "Tho Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, llth.Februaiy.

Terrible though the death role has been Australia was thrilled by the tales of heroism that drifted in from the scenes of the tragin busiiflres that occurred in Victoria last iveek-erid. After weeks of dry weather and scorching winds nothing could cheek the fires once they started in the Gippsland district, which has come to be known as the danger zone as far as bushfires are concerned. Three years ago this stretch of heavily timbered country was swept by the fire demon, and many lives were lost. Then, back in 1926, thirty-two lives were lost when the fire got but of control. The last fire is said to have destroyed more timber and other property than the 1926 blaze, but the loss of life has not been so great. However, nine people are dead and a dozen more are in hospital suffering dreadful agony. The timely arrival of heavy rain on Friday night saved tlie tOMnvship of Fumiiia, with its 30 inhabitants, and numerous . isolated settlers owe their lives to the sudden and welcome change in the weather.. • . Wonderful courage was displayed by a young schoolteacher, James Vague, who sacrificed his life in a vain effort to warn the men who were employed at O'Shea's mill, about two miles from the La Trobe River and eight miles from the township of Erica, While teaching his little flock of timber workers ' children at Erica Vague heard the rush of flames and the crashing of giant trees. Immediately he closed the school and saw that all the children reached their homes in safety. He could have made himself safe, too, but his thoughts went out to the ten men who were working at the mill eight miles away. He knew that they would be trapped if they were not warned, ,in time, as" the flames were travelling at great speed. He borrowed a horse and rushed through the bush, but he was caught by the flames, and he died a terrible death when he was close to the mill; ' ■ • ■; : DRAMA AT THE MILL. Meanwhile a drama was proceeding at the mill. When the men learnt of the approach of the fire they made frantic efforts .to save.: the mill, and sent urgent calls to adjacent townships for help. It was impossible for anyone to get to them. Suddenly the fire swept in from a different angle, and when it was seen that it would be impossible to save the mill from destruction six of the men decided to make for the river. The others made off in a different direction. 'As the men approached the river there was " yet another change in the wind, and the men were cruelly trapped. After the fire had passed James Maloney and Wilfred Richards were found lying together. The others —James Vague, John j 0 'Shea, John Schultz, and Edward' Miller, had become- separated. ' Their bodies were found frightfully, charred. There was a heavy pall of smoke over the valley, and it is believed that the men, when they were; trying to. find the river, could not see more -than three feet ahead. They practically walked into the trap. . . . :, • PLUCKY FIGHT FOR LIFE. • George Cook and his son Konald, who are both dead, and Walter Bunting, who wag critically burned, were the principals'in a pliieky'^fight foi-ilife when they were burning a fire break, on property near Warragul. They, too, were trapped when a sudden change of wind carried the., flames towards them, through the high, dry grass which was consumed like so much tinder. They were, quick to realise that their only chanco of safety lay in flight, and they made a mad rush up the hillside to a house. With the flames almost on them the boy stumbled and fell, and the men without hesitating turned to help him. The fire leapt forward, and the elder Cook was overcome by the smoke and the heat and collapsed. Escape was now impossible, and the boy and Bunting crouched over Cook in an effort to protect him from the merciless flames. The flames quickly passed over this little group, leaving Cook and his son mortally burned and Bunting, in a critical condition. As soon as it was possible rescuers raced to the scene. Practically all the clothing had been burnt from the bodies or the three sufferers. - .. . ; TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE. Ono of the ' oldest timbergotters in the Powclltown district, in the centre of, the fire-swept area, put up an heroic fight to save his littlehome.' He is known as "Captain" Schmidt, and he lived alone v t the little settlement of Blacksands. Although ho was warned by the other inhabitants when the flames came roaring down the hillside, directly in the track of his house, he refused to leave. He hurriedly filled some dishes with water and saved his home by splashing it on to the ceiling ast the heat-dried wood ignited. Almost all of those who escaped from this district saved only the clothes they were able to put on when the flames were approaching. A terrifying experience was that of Miss Eileen Eeid, daughter of Mr. E. Reid, whose home at Gilderoy was burned to the ground. She did not have time to put on" even her shoes and she trudged for nine miles between Gilderoy and Yarra Junction alone over roads strewn with burning logs. Many bridges over the mountain waterways had been burnt out, and: she had to scramble througli the still smouldering scrub on the banks of the dry creeks. At least fifty families 'have been made homeless as a result of the fires. They have lost everything. Valuable timber mills, two of which were rebuilt after the disastrous fires of 1926, have been burnt to a cinder.- Eailway lines and tram lines, which have cost thousands of pounds, have been destroyed, and dozens of timber-workers' houses have gone up in smoke. In the. timbered country between Poweiltown and Noogee there is hardly a place that has escaped the flames. When the fire was at its height the-! cries of little children mingled with those of maddened animals.