FIRE SCARE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 58, Issue 4122, 6 April 1949, Page 5

FIRE SCARE

HOUSE AT KOPUARAHI NEIGHBOURS’ GOOD WORK PAMPAS NEAR RESIDENCE (Contributed by a Kopuarahi Resident) The peacefulness of life in Kopuarahi was abruptly broken shortly after mid-day on a recent Saturday when a local housewife gate-crashed on the telephone (which was working) and cried out “ Help, my house is on fire. Hurry.”

One of the parties who was using the line at the time, dashed out and set his V-8 racing for the scene of the fire, blowing the horn in real fire engine style, and although he stopped twice in his rush to pick up helpers, he arrived on the job (after safely negotiating the notorious Kopuarahi school corner), within two minutes after leaving the telephone. In no time there were a dozen willing fire fighters in action. The telephone, with the assistance of “ tell-a-woman,” spread the news like real wildfire. By this time the whole house was enveloped in a pall of dense black and yellow smoke, which appeared to be belching' from the back portion of the building. The first the lady of the house knew of the fire was when she opened the back door and was met in the face by flames, which were lapping the back porch, so she was quite justified in thinking that her house had actually

caught fire, and she was equally justified in rushing on to the telephone to appeal for help, as the fire appeared a grim reality. However by slamming the door she certainly saved 1 her home, but had she panicked and left it open it would have acted like a funnel for the flames, which were fanned by a strong westerly that was blowing directly on the 'back of the house. However, it was not until the bucket brigade got right in under the smoke that it was known that the building was not yet alight, but a large stand of pampas growing a few feet away was blazing fiercely. Water was played on the walls of the house, which by this time were scorched and blistered. The excitement was tense for a few minutes, before it was realised that the house was out of danger. The only regrettable feature was the fact that while the owner of the house was pleasantly talking turf topics with some friends some miles away, he received a direct message that his house was on fire (as we all thought too). What a shock he got, and his mental anguish during his drive homewards (knowing his wife and children were in the house), can only be imagined, to say nothing of the thrills given to the two neighbours who accompanied him on that never-to-be-forgotten pre-occupied drive.