BUSH FIRE HAVOC

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22391, 11 April 1936, Page 14

BUSH FIRE HAVOC

LOSSES IN VICTORIA NIGHT OF TERROR SPENT . MANY HOMES DESTROYED ORDEAL OF COUNTRY FAMILIES / . ■■ A night of terror caused by bush fires in many', parts of Victoria was eased to-day by a change of wind in some of the danger zones, but in other areas in Gippsland terrible destruction continues, safd the Melbourne Herald of April 1. ' At Gunyah, south of MorWell, a mill and 15 houses' crashed to tho ground in flames earlV to-day, while 30 men, women, and sheltered under wet bags in a shallow trench. Half blinded, they have been taken to Morwell for medical attention. This lire swept down from Mirboo East, where the public hall, the local school and other buildings were destroyed. Yea is rjriged by fire. Two hundred men are out. An extension of yesterday's Hurstbridge fire has reached within a mile of North Queenstown. At Moe another sawmill has been destroyed and houses lost. Scores of houses, stock, sheds, fencing and much valuable hay, grass and timber have been lost in other outbreaks in. southern Victoria, and families are homeless. A Rude Awakening

The Gunyah fire came at tho township unexpectedly at 1.30 a.m. It started 10 miles away at Mirboo East, and, spreading out fanwise on a nine miles front, roared down on the mill town under> the drive of a fierce northerly. The mill hands, scrambling out of bed,, saw that they had no chance to stop it. They awakened their wives and children and hustled them along the' timber track .to a place where heavy; logs had gouged out a shallow trench several hundred yards from the mill. Racing back to the mill they seized chaff sacks, dipped them in the water, and carried /them to the women and children. With the heat from the flames causing steam to rise in clouds from the bags, and with blazing trees crashing down about them the 30 women and children- lived through a night of horror until the fire had passed on by davbroak.

The men, unable to save anything from their blazing homes, were soon exhausted. i'Some returned to where their families were sheltering, while others cut open tanks with axes and lav under the streams of water.

Returning to the t burned out mill, the families found that their 12 houses and a large boarding house lay in smoking ruins.

All Belongings Lost

With their eyes inflamed and partly Winded by smoke and heat, the 30 men, women and children were taken by district fa'rmer§ to the Gunyah Hotel, and later to Morwell for medical attention. They have lost all their belongings. ? - With women and children collected in groups in the streets, Forrest, a little township in Cape Otway, had a night of grave peril. The men 'fought back a lire which threatened the whole town and scorched the walls of the Roman Catholic Church and the school, burning down an outbuilding. The township ■was surrounded by flame, which almostswept over the main street. Injured on Road George Wilson, 25, of Gerangamete, who was one of the volunteers fighting the 'fire at Forrest, was found unconscious beside his motor.-cycle on the Gerangamete- Road. He died without regaining consciousness. It is believed he was affected by smoke during the fire-fighting and lost control of his cycle. Along the hilltops, and in the deep fern gullies pi the Dandenongs, hundreds of men fought until dawn to avert destruction of the Olinda and Sassafras settlements, and isolated homesteads. Guarding a fire front miles Jong, they were harassed by a constantly changing wind, and got no respite until the wind changed, and then lost its intensity.' Women and children; spent the night lining the foadsides in. anxious groups, and speculating on the safety of their homes. . '.