2YA THREATENED

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 17 January 1935, Page 7

2YA THREATENED

CORSE AND GRASS FIRE BROADCAST INTERRUPTED (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Jan. 16. A gorse and grass fire, which assumed serious proportions, broke out on the city side of Mount Victoria this afternoon and under the influence of a strong northerly breeze swept to the summit, threatening the 2YA transmitting station. So dense was the suffocating smoke that the control room, of the station was lost to sight from the city, only the tops of the twin masts remaining m view. The afternoon's broadcast was interrupted on account of the uncomfortable conditions created inside. The building escaped damage but the lire swept on through the thick scrub down the Hataitai side. It was out of hand for two hours, finally being checked by the wide road circling the lower slopes of the hill. At one stage a house on tho shoulder of the hill was threatened, but the fire was checked at the fence by two leads of hose, from which water pumped by engines was sprayed on the advancing flames. It is estimated that 50 acres were swept before the outbreak was extin-; guished.