DAMAGE BY GALE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 70, 20 February 1939, Page 9

DAMAGE BY GALE

BUSH FIRES IN SOUTH. NEAR PUBLIC WORKS CAMPS. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. 19. A great deal of minor damage was done along the Public Works camps on •the South Island main trunk line between Ivaikoura and Blenheim and at one or two points further south by a fierce north-westerly gale which, starting late on Saturday evening, blew at great force for three hours. The most serious result'was the burning of the big camp school at Aniseed, the headquarters camp on the northern sector of the line. A chain of isolated bush fires started and raged along a front of between two and three miles, one reaching the outskirts of the camp and burning the school to the ground. At a camp further north, at Blue Duck, a gale of almost cyclonic force threw down a row of six substantial huts of wood and canvas, and tore off the roof of the cookhouse and carried it a distance of nearly half a mile.

The cookhouse at Aniseed was partly destroyed by the wind, and the roof was also torn off the school at Oaro, the headquarters camp on the southern sector.

No one was injured, blit at least 30 huts were either blown completely down or damaged. There were minor interruptions to telegraph and telephone services.