SCRUB FIRE AT NEW BRIGHTON

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 17 January 1939, Page 6

SCRUB FIRE AT NEW BRIGHTON

FIVE-ROOMED BUNGALOW DESTROYED WOMAN’S FORTUNATE ESCAPE I Uniie-l Press Association! CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. Driven fiercely before to-day s northwesterly gale, fire swept with lightning speed through a large tract of scrub at north New Brighton, destroying a fiveroomed bungalow and its contents and threatening at one stage to wipe out the whole of the residential portion. Mrs C. Russell, whose home in Swan street was reduced to cinders, had a fortunate escape. Unaware of the outbreak of fire until she noticed flames consuming the washhouse she grasped her two-year-old child and ran a quarter of a mile in front of the blaze to the home of a neighbour, from where she watched the destruction of her house. Many residents removed all their furniture and prepared for the worst, but the Brighton fire brigade, together with relays of residents, and Public Works men, controlled the blaze. In four cases the fire swept right to the doorsteps before it was controlled. It is now believed that there is no further danger.