AUSTRALIAN BUSH FIRES.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 4 January 1922, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN BUSH FIRES.

SETTLERS GALLANT FIGHT. Sydney, December 21. Bush lues have been devastating some of the richest of the western districts of New Soma Crates lor over a week, and the fire zone now embraces an area of about 80,000 acres. This is bounded by walls of flame over 100 miles long. . Inside this area, men have been fighting day and night, battling with the roaring flames, which made a glare on which the eyes could not look at close quarters. Nevertheless, hundreds of men, with bowed heads and bloodshot eyes, with faces begrhned and with weary limbs, have been struggling in an endeavour to save

many valuable properties, and the lives of thousands of stock. .In connection with the fighting of the fires there are many stories ol brave, sometimes recklessly brave, and unselfish deeds. One young man, a worker on the Dubbo-Molong line, dashed through a high wall of flame, a hundred yards deep, after drenching his clothes. His purpose was to save Ihe woolshed on Killaloola, to which a thin, red line of fire was approaching through a strip of unburnt grass. He accomplished what seemed impossible, and saved the building. When he returned be was cheered and his Bravery is to be recognised. In another case a selector’s son, without assistance, and with the continuous menace of being cut off from means of escape, fought the flames from approaching his father's property for 72 hours on end. He was on the point of collapse from sheer exhaustion -,when relief arrived.