PALL OF SMOKE

Evening Star, Issue 21005, 20 January 1932, Page 8

PALL OF SMOKE

BUSH FIRES IK AUSTRALIA FOREST-COVERED RANGES ABLAZE Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. SYDNEY, January 20. (Received January 20, at 10.30 a.m.) Nature appears to have run riot in Australia. While Queensland is suffering from a cyclone and Hoods New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia are in the grip of a heat wave and bush fires. Great fires are raging in Victoria in the forest-covered ranges on the shores of the Southern Ocean and to the north of Melbourne. A dozen gangers raced for life along a mile of railway track to Moe with flames many feet high on each side. Groups of men at Upper Beaconsfield also had narrow escapes when they were trapped by walls of flame. Many fire fighters collapsed. Mr T. Bourke’s home at Bayswater, valued at over £30,000, was destroyed. Five children were rescued in the nick of time.

A smoke haze as thick as a dense fog hangs over the whole State, and extends several miles out to sea, Tho steamer Mernoo was forced to reduce speed for safety, and arrived at Melbourne a day late. The mercury reached 111 degrees. Adelaide experienced another sizzling day, with a maximum of 107 degrees. Many towns in Western and New South Wales reported century readings'.