RAGING FIRES

Evening Star, Issue 19175, 16 February 1926, Page 5

RAGING FIRES

VICTORIA SWEPT TOWNSHIPS WIPED OUT MANY DEATHS REPORTED TWO FORESTS ABLAZE. Press Association —By Telegraph Copyright Australian and 2s.Z. Press Association. MELBOURNE, February 15. Ten persons were burned to death in a forest fire at Gilderoy, near "Warburton. Another death is reported from Erica. Six people are also reportc*! missing, and hundreds have been lefthomeless and destitute. Tire reports so far are meagre, but the casualty list to date states that Walker and his wife and two children, Sydney John, Herbert John, Bert Sandham, and a baby named Duncan, and two men named Lindsay and King were burned to death. Albert Munson, Joseph Johnson, -Joseph Walker, L. Roberts, J. W'alker, Rowe and his wife, and Clarence Rowe are missing.' The injured include ■ King and his wife, Duncan M'Donald and his wife and two children, all of whom received burns, and Rowe, who was blinded.

Melbourne is surrounded by bush fires, which, fed by a gale raging at fifty miles an hour, carried a thick pall of dust and smoke over the city. The sky reflects the fires, which are on a fiftv-mile front.

The town of Noojee, Gippshxnd, was swept by firo and practically wiped out. A relief train was unable to get through. The town of Droyton is still in danger.

A message from Alexandra states that the whole of Rubicon Forest is on fire.

At Sherwood Forest, which is also ablaze. £50,000 worth of damage has been caused and seven years’ work on the plantations has been undone. The conflagrations are the most serious for twenty years, and families are abandoning their homes and fleeing in all directions.

A message from Adelaide says that a bush fire at Mount Pleasant has endangered the town. The flames started in the hills and swept down on Mount Pleasant, fanned by a fierce gale. A second fire broke out, and the two, joining forces, burned out farms, telegraph poles, and fencing. ' Despite the efforts of a thousand firo fighters the flames swept into the town, destroying the Anglican Church and badly damaging a large number of buildings. Nearly 30,000 acres of valuable country have been destroyed. COMMUNICATION DISORGANISED APPALLING EXPERIENCES CREEKS AS REFUGES. MELBOURNE, February 15. Later details of the forest fires show that sixteen persons have been burned to death and seven are missing. The additional casualty lists state that Peter Olsen and his wife and three children were burned to death at Noojee.

Many people suffering from burns are arriving at the Melbourne hospitals, but the communications are so disorganised that it is impossible so far to issue complete casualty lists. At Noojee, men, women, and children were compelled to huddle in the river all day.

Relief operations were greatly retarded owing to the destruction of the railway bridges forcing the relief trains to return. Temporary repairs were later effected, enabling the trains to get through, but to reach them the people had to cut their way through burning logs. Special relief parties with food, blankets, and tents have already been organised by the Government and have set out for the devastated regions, A conservative estimate of the damage in the Noojee region is £IOO,OOO. The police state that the fire in Dandenong ranges which nearly demolished Beaconsfield, Upper Beaconsfield, and Berwick was caused by a party of men on a fishing expedition in a prohibited creek. Twelve bodies have so far been recovered and the police state that more will be found as the relief parties search the burnt-out regions. One report states that a family of five were incinerated near Warragnl, in Gippsland. A party of seventy men encamped at Bunyip had to run for their lives. They only just escaped. Most of the refugees tell of appalling experiences, blazing fragments falling on them as they sheltered in the rivers and creeks. Rain has now commenced in some of the areas. VICTIMS OF THE FIRE • THIRTY-TWO DEATHS. MELBOURNE, February 15. (Received February 16, at 1.30 a.m.) An 'unconfirmed report states that thirty-two people were burned to death iu the forest fires.