FOREST FIRES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23850, 28 December 1940, Page 9

FOREST FIRES

6GO ACEES OF PINES CANTERBURY OUTBREAKS CARELESSNESS SUSPECTED [by telegraph—press association] CHRISTCHUIiCH. Friday Two areas of pinus insignis plantation covering a total of 660 acres were swept by fire in Canterbury this afternoon. One was an area, estimated at 500 acres or more, of pine plantation in the Eyre well State forest, north of the Waimakariri Hiver. The outbreak, the cause of which is unknown, was reported at 1.35 p.m., and required the efforts of 70 firefighters to bring it under control after almost nine hours. At 10.30 o'clock tonight the fire was stated to be in hand and it was thought that all further danger of its spread was past. The Eyrewell forest comprises about 24,000 acres, so that the work of the gangs had to be directed against any major spread. The conservator of State forests at Christehurch, Mr. P. H. M urray, said that the problem had been to confine the fire to a narrow strip along the outside of the plantation, but in this the gangs had been successful. About. 110 acres of the Selwyn Plantation Board's afforestation area at Bankside were destroyed. The trees burned were three, four and five-year-old pines, the cost of replacing which will be about £SOO. The plantation board employees, railway workers and neighbouring farmers-worked hard to get the fire under control. The police are investigating the cause of the fire, which is thought to have been started by careless picnickers.