SAWMILL MENACED

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 February 1947, Page 6

SAWMILL MENACED

BUSH FIRE CHANGES PATH IN AFTERNOON RAIN HELPS FIGHTERS Jack Brothers’ sawmill at Bell Hill was menaced late yesterday when a sudden wind change altered the course of the bush fire which had been burning in cutover areas in the Nelson CreekBell Hill area since Tues/day night. Despite the efforts of the gangs of men engaged in firefighting, the mill buildings appeared to be doomed when the heavy rain which accompanied the wind change checked the flamed. The fire was particularly hard to keep under control because of the limited water supply and the dryness of the undergrowth following the recent dry spell. Up till yesterday afternoon the fire which started in the Beil Hili area, had worked its way towards Nelson Creek, where fire-breaks had been constructed by workers from three nearby mills. When the wind swung round to the south-east yesterday, however, the fire, which was about under control, sprang up with new vigour but raced back in the direction from which it had come and was soon, consuming timber in the Bell Hill area and advancing at an alarming rate on the Bell Hill mill.

The situation was most serious when, the rain started last evening. Heavy showers, combined with further efforts to confine the fire to its present area, stopped its progress, and to-day the outbreak finally, appeared to be under control. It is expected that within a few days the patches buring to-day will have been extinguished, and on this assumption reduced numbers of men have been left to guard against further outbreaks.