SWEPT BY FIRE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21471, 20 April 1933, Page 10

SWEPT BY FIRE

PASTURES AND fiUSH AREAS IN CANTERBURY GALE FANS THE FLAMES HOMESTEAD SAVED BY RAIN [by telegraph—OWN correspondent] CHRISTCHURCII. Wednesday Hundreds of acres of pasture and bush were destroyed by fires which started on Mr. John Mackle's station at Puhipuhi, Kaikoura, this morning during a raging north-wester. The fire seriously threatened at least one homestead, which was saved from destruction by a sudden change in wind and a shower of rain. The first fire started in bush near an old unemployment camp and in a 00-mile gale was soon out of control. The flames swept uphill toward the homestead of Mr. Mackle, on the Kaiwhare block. Within an hour the whole countrvsido was ablaze and 460 acres of a block of 500 acres had been reduced to a blackened, charred expanse. About 100 settlers fought the fire, but were handicapped by the galo and the very dry condition of the bush and grass.

After strenuous fire-fighting tho settlers cut a fire-break in scrub along the Kaiwhare Stream and confined tho blaze to a stand of virgin bush in a gully, thus delaying its approach to thcj homestead. Tho flames then spread along to Maungamaunu, destroying acres of pasture on Mr. P. J. Boyd's property, and on to tho Blue Duck Valley. At 10.45 tho wind suddenly veered to the south and rain fell heavily for an hour, during which the fire-fighters got tho flames under control. Only the rain saved Mr. Mackle's homestead, from winch tho family had removed tho furnituro to a place of safety. A second fire of less serious proportions broke out on Mr. Pat Smith's farm on tho east bank of tho Waiuiangararo Stream and burned a fairly large area of bush, fern and dry grass before the rain extinguished it. A third outbreak, in tho Charwell Valley, also in Kaikoura County, on the KaikouraWaiau road, destroyed acres of grassland and ilax country. Further to the south yet another fire raged over 250 acres of the Teviotdale estate of Mr. H. Greenwood. From a point near the homestead to the coast all fences were destroyed, but there was no loss of stock. The north-west wind carried the flames away from the homestead and plantations, but there were anxious moments for the owner and his family.