FIRE ON MILE FRONT

Northern Advocate, 10 February 1928, Page 6

FIRE ON MILE FRONT

MANY ACRES SWEPT

TOWN ENDANGERED,

WIND LULLS OPPORTUNELY,

HAMILTON, This Day.

A disastrous fire swept a large area on the slopes of the Te Aroha mountain last evening and for hours anxietv / was felt for the safety of the outskirts of the town. One hundred acres of scrub and ■ picturesque bush has been destroyed, and oven at II p.m., when the risk to the town seemed over, there w r as a wall of flame over a mile long making its way up the gully near Bald Spur. The water reservoir on the hill was endangered and fears of the residents were aggravated by the failure of the electric light. Danger, so far as the town is concerned, vanished when the wind dropped. The fire originated in Ruakaka suburb, where blackberry was being burned off.—Press Assn.

FURTHER DETAILS,

FLAMES 30 FEET HIGH

SAWMILL SAVED

FIGHTERS WORN HARD

AUCKLAND, This Day,

Further details of the Te Aroha fire state that at 4.35, p.m. the alarm was given. The flames reached 30 feet in height, jumped a creek and crossed two wide tracks. Ashes began to fall over the tow r n as sheets of flame rushed through the dry bush, but the wind carried the sparks away from the,residential area. Trainer’s sawmill was in the centre of the outbreak and the firefighters decided to salvage the equipment. The bush surrounding the mill was demolished .rapidly before a wall of fire with a frontage of nearly a mile and a half. The mill was saved, but the fire laid waste practically all the bush on which the plant is dependant. The mill engine # and waggon were dragged to safety down the mill track, as it was feared that the clearing might not prove a sufficient fire break. It seemed as if the workers might be cut off from escape by a sudden change of wind, but a lull at a critical moment averted the danger. As the flames spread through the thick bush, several houses were menaced, but were saved by a change in the direction of the wind.

At 10.30 p.m. the firefighters concluded that the outskirts of the town were safe and ceased work for the plight.

The fire had exhausted itself by midnight, though at one time there vfas a circle of flame six miles in circumference and every gully and mountain recess was a raging inferno. This morning the mountain appeared as a charred peak with numerous smoking trunks of trees, grim remnants of one $f nature’s most beautiful 'collection of trees and shrubs which had taken scores of years to grow. When the fire ascended on the peak, exceeding 3000 feet, it gradually died out, having apparently absorbed all the lighter growth during its quick transit across the mountain. —Press Assn.

GALES AND FOREST FIRES,

SOUTH CALIFORRNIA IN DANGER,

MUCH HAVOC WROUGHT

(Received 10.56 a.m.) NEW YORK, February 9

Los Angeles advises that Southern California is threatened with serious damage as the result of wind and forest fires. Two fires, located in the Virdugo hills started when the wind blew down high-power electric wires. Houses and barns wore blown down in the vicinity of Pasadena. Lack of communication with the Mount Lowe Observatory prevents verification. A report / statcs its roof is blown off.—A. and N.Z.