Grass Fire Does Damage at Paerata.

Franklin Times, Volume XXV, Issue 14, 4 February 1935, Page 4

Grass Fire Does Damage at Paerata.

LARGE AREA BURNT. SEVERAL FARMS THREATENED. FIGHTERS’ LIVELY FIVE HOURS. A grass Are which broke out in the Paerata district on Friday afternoon, assumed serious proportions. Pastures on three-farms were burned, and at one stage the fire threatened to spread into two other farms. At one time there were some '.O people fighting the flames, they comprising farmers, their families, employees, and all the boys available from Wesley College. The fire was finally subdued at about eight o’clock, it having been burning for nearly five hours. Toward dusk the wind decreased, aad this helped the fighters to check the outbreak. A large area of country was affected, and in addition a number of fences were damaged. The land over which the fire swept included swamps in which ti-tree was growing. Logs in the swamps are stdl smouldering. The owners of the properties over which the fire passed are Messrs Schlaepfer brothers, I. Montgomerie, and Moore. At one stage the flames were on the point of spreading to the farms of Messrs Ross brothers and D. Jamieson.

Quite a cloud of smoke which arose from the fire could be seen a consulerable distance away.