FIRE AND GALE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11562, 28 January 1901, Page 5

FIRE AND GALE.

GREAT DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY IN TASMANIA. By Telegraph.—Press Association.— Latjnceston, January 26. Serious bush fires, the result of hot, dry weather, are raging in the vicinity of Queenstown. When the fire was at; its height an extraordinary sight was witnessed. The flames were travelling up a hill away from some houses, when they encountered a fierce whirlwind, which caught the fire, bent it to a thin column of flame and whirled it down the hill towards the houses*. j As it reached the first hut the wind seemed to blow the fire right out, but the force of the gale was scarcely less disastrous, for it I ' unroofed the hut, and hurled the building a I distance of some yards against a house. A | few minutes later the hut was on fire, and i the house was speedily demolished. The whirlwind, which lasted three or four minutes, unroofed a numbcx'- of other build- ' ings in the neighbourhood. At North Lyell the fire was most serious. Rows of boardinghouses and also some 30 miners' houses were destroyed, as well as I the dwellings of two mine managers. j A certain amount of damage was caused j to the Mount Lyell Company's haulage line, south of Thai-sis. The concentrating mill was only saved with difficulty. ,' The most serious damage done was fci (he [ new Queen River tram-line, which was destroyed for a considerable distance, to- | gether with a number of bridges. !