FATAL FOREST FIRES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3755, 2 March 1926, Page 37

FATAL FOREST FIRES.

VICTORIAN CALAMITY. SYDNEY, February 19. Australia, so free comparatively from great national disasters, stands aghast at the awful results of the forest fire fiend in Western Gippsland, Victoria, involving a heavy death roll, scores of injured pepole, some of them permanently blinded, huge losses of property amounting to at least half a million pounds, thousands of homeless people, and hundreds of acres of blackened desolate country. The awful holocaust cast a gloom over the whole country. Judging by the messages of sympathy that have flooded into Melbourne, not only from countries of the British Empire, but also from foreign nations, the calamity has deeply stirred practically the whole world. Not since the great Gippsland fires of February 20,1898, have such forest fires raged, but even on that occasion the loss of life was not so heavy as in the present instance.

Intense heat since the last week of January dried timber and brushwood, and during the last three weeks or more settlers over the greater part of Victoria, some parts of Southern New South Wales, and portions of South Australia have experienced terrible losses. Reports of these, evidently, were cabled abroad, and drew from the Montreal Star remarks of sympathy for the fire victims. Some members of the Federal Parliament construed these remarks inexplicably as evidence that exaggerated reports had been sent abroad. The Prime Minister, Mr Bruce, thereupon announced that he would cable Australia’s representatives abroad that the fires had mainly been of a scattered nature and were not so serious as press reports made it appear. This despite the fact that for over a fortnight a conservative paper like the Melbourne Argus had devoted from two to three columns daily to reports of the fires, many of them involving huge property losses. Instead of minimising losses and dangers in a manner reminiscent of an ostrich burying its head In the sand, the Federal Government might have been better engaged preparing for such an eventuality as happened two days after Mr Bruce’s words had been spoken.

At all events, the calamitous Western Gippsland fires appear to have been the culmination of fires that had been burning in scattered regiona for over a fortnight and which seem to have linked up into the fierce blase responsible for the

tragic loss of life and property. The affected area, 40 or 50 miles from Melbourne, is a noted dairying, timber, and tourist centre. Where but a few days ago were smiling prosperity and sylvan peacefulness, green clad slopes and slum bering mist-laden valleys, there is now only blackened desolation. It will never be possible to give a coherent account of how the fires spread They seem to have started in a number of places travelled circle-wise, and, gradually linkin', up, trapped everyone in the tiny and scattered settlements of ne district in walls of raging circular flames. Escape apparently was impossible, save for those who reached conveyances and rushed through the flames at the expense of painful burning injuries. But mor. often than not the settlers stayed on in the last hope of saving their homes, and were engulfed in the fires before they knew that the latter were so overpowering. All that can be said is that several townships have been wiped out, including one, Noo.iee, where the only building left standing was a brick hoteH thousands of acres of grassed and thickly-wooded conntrv have been left ruined and unuseable. Years of painstaking, heart-breaking toil have been laid to waste overnight. Some of the accounts emanating from survivors are heartrending. There was, for instance, the case of a little party of 18 who lived at a sawmill at Gilderon. near Warburton. To-day only two are alive to tell an appalling narrative oi humans trapped by flames on every side. The others were swallowed up by a fire that consumed eveyrthing in its path. The 18 persons were in the mill when the flames caught the building and spread with such speed that the occupants barely had time to leav ethe building. They found themselves closely hemmed by a circle of fire, and the two survivors escL->ed by dashing through the raging inferno. At another small settlement a group of people sought shelter in a small creek, steeping themselves up to the neck. The flames had advanced so quickly that in the rush for this refuge a small child was overlooked. Horrified, the others saw him almost surrounded by fire, too late to be saved. By force the maddened mother was restrained from rushing to certain death in an effort to rescue him, and in front of their eyes the child was burnt to death, his screams of agony rising briefly above the roaring and crackle of the flames. Another family of five—husband, wife, and three children—were all burnt to death, being overwhelmed by flames that raced so rapidly that the family, fighting to save their home, were engulfed before they knew the fire was so close. Most terrifying, perhaps, was the experience of the inhabitants of the prosperous little township of Noojee. One by one the houses of the town were destroyed, despite the valiant efforts of male fire-fighters. The women an dchildren sought refuge in the railway station buildings, in the hope that these would escape, but the fire crept up, and the wooden platform began to smoulder. Then they were all —over 100 — huddled into the hotel, the only brick building in the town, and there, throughout the night, they stayed, surrounded by fire, waiting for the end, praying hysterically that some change of wind might come that would save them, and, when all hope seemed to be past, a sudden calm, a lessening of the flames, and then safety. Just as the full story of the holocaust cannot be told in connected fashion, not a twentieth of the heroic doggedness of firefighters and valiant self-sacrifices will be known. A few have come to light. Amid the tragic narratives of death and suffering re these stories of unexampled heroism. Epic courage, for instance, was displayed by a girl of 16. She spread her body across two little sisters when the fire roared upon them, and, though badly burnt herself, saved their lives. Then there was Mr W. E. Bull, president of the Victorian branch of the Telegraphists' Union, who, at Powelltown on a holiday, was seen to go several times into the flames and rescue women, and was noticed to fall fighting the fire. His remains were found the next morning. Another hero named Rowe saved the life of his wife and another woman. He himself is now in hospital, blinded. Already relief funds in every State have been liberally subscribed, and everything is being done to help the unfortunate sufferers. But all the help of humans will never give back to some the precious lives of relatives and friends. In the midst of recounting these tragedies and desolation comes the thought that the holocaust was probably started by some careless, thoughtless action on the part of one person.