BLACK SUNDAY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 27 October 1928, Page 5

BLACK SUNDAY

; IN NEW SOUTH WALES £1,000,000 DAMAGE from fires and storm i • A TERRIFIC VISITATION SYDNEY, 12lh October. One of the inost exti'abrdnary weather visitations on record in Australia which' according to cabled'advices, also reached' as far as New Zealand, held sway on Sunday, and, in New South Wales particularly, caused tremendous havoc. In Sydney and its environs alone tho damage is estimated at £1,000,000, while the indirect cost from the aftermath of such a visitation is not possible of computation. Earlier in the week Sydney had been visited by the. unusual “'mud 5 ’ rain, caused by the red dust blown from, western plains being brought down by. light fine .rain. It sprinkled,everything., with a red covering, extremely difficult to remove. Sunday dawned hot and sultry, and the opportunity , was taken immediately by practically every car, owner to get out to tho beaches or other pleasure resorts. 'But by 11 a.m. a high wind had risen. This developed during the day .into, aj rushing, tearing blast which maintained a speed of 63 miles an hour over a long period. The wind, incidentally,, brought' no relief from the sultriness. Rather did! it intensify tho condition, and in addition it .created widespread havoc. It came suddenly, seeking out the inherent weaknesses in buildings, and unroofing hundreds of houses in all parts df the metropolis. It blew hoardings and fences down with one terrific puff, sent sections of roofs'flying through the air for distances up to half a mile, and made such a wide sweep that the damage will not be fully repaired for months to come. •Everywhere it brought devastation. During the day no, fewer than 80 calls of fire vsfii'e received by the fire brigades, mostly bush and scrub outbreaks, arid: it was from one of these that the most disastrous event of tho day, involving; a, loss of. rhdrq than £300,000, occurred.; Scrub which surrounds tho Cumberland Paper mills, situated on the upper reaches of the Lane, Cove River, had been. ; burning intermittently all morning ; but it was not thought to bo really threatening to tho mills until lato in the morning. ... By that time the wind had reached its peak, arid, sweeping the fire before it down the hills, it threw. t]}q flames all round the mills, caught alight to them,

and within a few hours they were burnt to tho, ground. Incidentally, even the punts on the liver beside the, mill were destroyed, fot tile lire camp down on a half-mile front, bringing such terrific heat that at its height it was impossible to stand closer than 500 yards from the main blaze. lh° main building was fitted with Sprinklers; but though these held part ot tho mill safe for three-quarters of an hour, they were helpless beforo the final blaze. Piiemcn, worn out by a whole day of extinguishing bush fires and sav*ng cottages on the samo side of the arrived at tho big fire at a- tiiiie when it was impossible for them to get close enough to tho river to get their i appliances, working. They had to stand by and watch tho place burn. At the height of tho outbreak it was discovered .that the watchman had not come out, and a party braved the flames to.find him. - He was in the office section, even then being menaced, and was on the point of collapse, having worked throughout to get, all the valuable records and other papers from the office building into the Ofify Stone building on the premises. In- : cidentally they were saved from destruction. Just after he was brought out,, two badly burned employees crawled on hands and knees through the fire zolric, arid collapsed at the feet ol the watchers. Thsy had been trapped by the flames in the mill area, and, finding retreat out off from the waterside, because Hie punts were all alight, had to. make a dash for life through the flames sweeping down the hillside. The orily possible way of getting through was to follow the narrow track, on both sides of which the scrub was blazing fiercely and throwing off flames which extended across its width. So desperate was the situation that both men shook hands before they started. Pc- a time they ,were able to remain upright, but for the last 500 yards they had to crawl ou hands and knees. When they; got out eventually they had all tlie hair burnt from ■ their heads, while their anus and other parts of their bodies were affected t too. ■ Firemen took them to hospital, where tliey are recovering slowly. Tlie bush and, scrub fires round the metropolis were responsible for the destruction of twelve cottages in various suburbs, in addition to the wide damage dorio to fencing and other property. Similar damage was reported from Newcastle south along the coast, the whole area being, apparently, a blazing, mass. Lawson, Qrie of the Blue Mountains • tourist resorts, was menaced by a fire, blazing on a wide front, and it was only diverted from the town proper by the combined efforts of residents and tourists, . ~ , . Amongst the .extraordinary incidents which occurred during tlie day, perhaps the,most outstanding was one in,which a poultry .farmer, William Williams, ol .Rydalmcre, was severely injured. At tfie height of,the gale ho noticed that the roof of one of Tiis large incubating sheds, was being loosened. He climbed on the roof, and commenced to remedy the trouble. Brit an unusually strong . gust’hf wirid caught the whole structure, lifted thcToof entirely from its'supports, arid'hurled it high in the air. Williams was'clinging for life to its apex, andun, this, (precarious position he was. carried 30 yards and dashed, with tlie debris, in a neighbour’s yard. When it crashed the roof turned over and pinned Williams to the ground. His neighbours rescued him, and he. was taken to hospital with broken forearms, shoulderblade, arid collarbone, as well as dislocations to the. right shoulder and left elbow. Sunday’s fires were part of a hectic week for firemen, for on Saturday, the Coronation Box Factory in Redfern. was destroyed, £30,000 damage being caused. And on the Monday following, fire broke out in the shopping centre of Cremorne, on the north side of the harbour, and caused £20,000 damage beforo it burnt

itself cut. Firemen were impotent here again, for the water supply was practically non-existent, most of the reservoirs oil that side of the harbour being practically dry. Sunday was a record for the consumption of water, and thus early in the season a warning lias been issued by the Water Board lo conserve supplies. The city’s consumption for 24 hours up to 0 a.in. on Sunday was 100,375,000 gallons. Over Sunday this figure rose to 103,784,000 gallons, and iti an additional hour reached 112,343,000 gallons, beating the previous record by 4,000,000 gallons. The new figure represented an average consumption per head of 81 gallons during the day. In some of the suburbs on the higher levels it was impossible to give sufficient supplies, and water carts were sent through the streets producing the unusual spectacle of citizens getting supplies in buckets. There were times in some homes when they did not have sufficient water to make a cup of tea. The coastal area of Sydney has never had such a Black -Sunday. It does not wish for a repetition.