BUSH FIRES RAGING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23703, 10 January 1939, Page 9

BUSH FIRES RAGING

DAMAGE IN VICTORIA MANY HOUSES DESTROYED LOSS OF LIFE FEARED (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) MELBOURNE, Jan. 9. Bush fires raged over great parts of Victoria doing damage amounting to thousands of pounds. Houses, fences, hay stacks, orchards, and valuable timber have been destroyed. Thousands of men and women worked frantically to check the spread of the flames until a change of wind brought relief in many districts.

Forty-three houses were destroyed at Dromana.

Seventy people were trapped by bush fires in three sawmills in the .Erica district. Sixty of these are believed to be safe, but grave fears are entertained for 10 in Morgan’s mill at Mount Baw Baw. Rescue parties will to-da v continue their efforts to penetrate into the burning country where the mills are situated, Meanwhile all means of communication hava been cut off. TWO MEN BURNED TO DEATH ■FORESTRY OFFICIALS MELBOURNE, Jan. 9. (Received Jan. 10. at 0.30 a.m.) Rescue parties to-day brought 20 women and children to safety from the bush fire area at Erica. Their plight was extremely perilous, the whole of their belongings being burnt They spent a night of terror. Two forestry officials, Charles Denby, aged 55, and John Darling, aged 31, were burnt to death at Toolangi when a change in the wind carried fire in their direction, overwhelming them. Several bush homes were destroyed in the Glendale timber mills district.

TWO FAMILIES MISSING GRAVE FEARS FOR SAFETY SYDNEY, Jan. 9. (Keceived Jan. 10, at 0.45 a.m.) It was revealed to-dav that the devastating bush fires which raged in several parts of Victoria cost the lives of two forestry officers who were cut off from help while fighting fires in the Erica district. These are the only deaths that have been reported, but grave fears are held for the safety of at least two families in that district. These people are known to have been in the area where the fires were fiercest and have not been heard of all day. The men were sawmill employees living with their families near one of the destroyed mills. Though the wind dropped to-day the fires obtained such a hold yesterday that they were still raging in many places to-day. It is estimated that at least 60 houses were destroyed. An appeal throughout the State for relief of the victims has opened. The Governor. Lord Huntingfield, gave £25, the Lord Mayor, Mr A. W. Coles, £2O. and Mrs Coles £2O. The chairman of the Forests Commission to-day blamed the carelessness of settlers for starting the fires when burning off. The danger is not yet oyer, especially if the winds again tend northerly. The whole State, after a prolonged drought, is as dry as tinder.

• A SEARING HEAT WAVE

SYDNEY, Jan. 9,

The eastern half of Australia is in the grip of a searing heat wave. The temperatures in New South Wales reached 116 deg, Bourke has registered over lOOdeg for 23 successive days. The whole of Victoria suffered intense heat, Melbourne’s temperatures being 108 deg.