TREES DESTROYED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21946, 14 February 1946, Page 8

TREES DESTROYED

BURNHAM CAMP AREA TROOPS FIGHT FLAMES DANGER TO VEHICLES (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. 14. Five hundred men from the Burnham Military Camp fought through the small hours of yesterday morning to prevent the spread of a plantation fire which, in the earlier stages, threatened to cause widespread damage to neighbouring plantations and, in the event of a switch of wind .to the south, to Burnham camp.

The fire was onlv half-a-mile away before it was checked. It swept .through a belt of pine and blue-gums about 300 yards deep. Dry conditions and a high north-west wind caused the flames to spread with alarming rapidity. Debris flying high in the air landed half-a-mile away, and there was a considerable threat to the property of F. M. Tweed on the opposite side of the main south railway line, but an alert watch was kept and burning embers were extinguished as they landed. The fire, which started in Chamberlain’s plantation, one of the Selwyn Plantation Board’s areas, was first noticed at 12.30 a.m. by .the camp guard on the motor transport park, the nearest part of the camp to the outbreak, where hundreds of vehicles are held.

One hundred men are always available at Burnham camp for fire-fighting, but it was immediately evident that the outbreak was on a scale which would make this number inadequate. The camp commandant, Lieutenant-Colonel R. J. Eyre, called on all personnel and, armed with wet sacks and beaters, they made a vigorous attack on the flames. At the same time a reconnaissance was made in the darkness for water, and by good fortune it was discovered within 1000 yards of the fire.