SERIOUS LOSSES AVERTED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26077, 14 February 1946, Page 4

SERIOUS LOSSES AVERTED

TRIBUTE TO FIRE-FIGHTERS SURVEY BY COMMISSIONER (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 13. Though the seriousness of the fires throughout the Taupo district should not be under-rated, nevertheless an infinitely worse loss would have undoubtedly been suffered had it not been for the strenuous efforts of the fire-fighters, said the Commissioner of State Forests, Mr C. F. Skinner, on his return to Wellington from Taupo late to-day. The commissioner,' who had made an aerial inspection of the areas, emphasised that the weather was still far from reassuring, and it was probable that further reliefs of fire-fighters would need to be organised before the present emergency concluded. “In spite of the fact that the fires have swept over several hundreds of thousands of acres of scrub and fern 'land, the losses of buildings and equipment have been extremely small, and up till to-day only three buildings appear to have been destroyed by fire,” •said the commissioner. “ The most critical fires in the Taupo district are still being fought.” One was eight miles south of Atiamuri and the other east of Taupo township, in a corner between the Kaingaroa State Forest and the exotic forest belonging to the Afforestation Proprietary, Ltd. The Minister praised the work of the army and navy personnel from Waiouru in preventing larger losses in the exotic forest east of Taupo. Though virtually all the Urewera forest country about 2000 square miles, was under smoke, aerial inspection revealed that the fires were limited to a few hundred acres in Te Whaiti and the adjoining districts. Additional aircraft had been made available for observation and ground-air liaison.