BUSH FIRES

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 12 February 1927, Page 5

BUSH FIRES

RAGING IN VICTORIA.

FIRE FIGHTERS AT WORK. THREE DEATHS REPORTED. BY OaHliE--PRESS ASSOOIATIO.N-'-eOI’TRIG.ai MELBOURNE, Feb. 11. A bush lire which, broke out at the kangaroo grounds, in the Dandenong lianges, has swept the whole wattle country, embracing Warrandyke. The Federal timber mills, 18 miles from Warburton, have been destroyed. Every available man in the district is engaged in lighting. the lire, which is now advancing on a village north ol : Croydon, at the foot of Mount Dandenong. Rush fires are reported, in the Bacchus Marsh district, and fear is expressed that the flames may reach the Grampians, where the country is heavily wooded. Forty men have been sent from the naval base at Crib Point to fight the flames at Redliill, where the railway station is surrounded The largest grass fires for years are reported from Sunburg, and are stid spreading. Several homes are threatened. The fire is raging fiercely towards Queenstown- Urgent messages to the Heidelberg fire brigade stated that it help was not forthcoming immediately the town would be wiped out. In the Camperdown district a share farmer named D. Speed, with two sons, aged two and four, were burned to death. The lire advanced along a front of several miles in bracken and fernThe unfortunate victims had no avenue of escape. Several homes have been destroyed. . ~ . , . , Melbourne is practically encircled by flariies. The Dandenong Ranges are enveloped by flames. The fires have burned to within 10J yards of Queenstown, which is now regarded as safe. Hundreds of sheep and cattle have perished.