AUSTRALIAN BUSH FIRES

Patea Mail, Volume XLVIII, 17 February 1926, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN BUSH FIRES

' ' TOWNB wiped out. MANY LIVES LOST. A message from Melbourne on Fobruary 15 states that sixteen people have been’ burned to death and seven are. m issing as the result of the forest fires. Details of the casualties are meagre. Ten were burned to death in a lire at Gilderoy, near Wurburtou. Another death is reported in Erica. Hundreds have been left, homeless and destitute. - The casualty list to date states that Walker, his wife and their two children,. Sydney Johns, 1 Herbert Johns, Bert Sandham, a baby named Duncan, and two men, Lin day and King, were burned io death at Gilderoy. AiDert Munson, Joseph Johnson, Joseph Walker, L. Roberts, J. Walker, a man named Rowe and his wife and Clarence Rowe, of the same district, are missing. ~ The injured include King and Mrs. Duncan, McDonald, and his wife, and their two children, who arc.burned, and a man named Rowe, who has been blinded.

Additional casualty lists'state "that Ector Olsen, his wife, and their three children were burned to death at Moo jee. . TOWN WIPED OUT.

Many poplo suffering from burns art arriving at the Melbourne hospitals, but communications are so disorganised that it is impossible so far to issue complete casualty lists. Melbourne is surrounded by bush lires, which are fed by a gale raging at fifty miles an hour. This-carried a thick pall of dust and smoke over the city, and-the.‘sky reflected the fires, which are on a fifty miles front. The towu oi Noojoc, Gippslhnd, was .-wept by fire and has been practically wiped out. A relief train was unable to get through. The town of Croydon is still in danger. "■ FAMILY BURNED TO DEATH. The police state that tlfe fire in the Dandonong Ranges, which has . nearly demolished Beaconsfield, Upper Beaconsfield, and Berwick, was caused by a party of-men on a fishing expedition in a prohibited .creek. Twelve bodies have so Yar been recovered, and the police state that more will be found as the relief parties search die burnt-out regions. One report states that a family ol live were incinerated near Warragul, tfippsland. A party of seventy, men encamped at Buuyip.had to fun for their lives. They only just escaped. Most of the refugees tell of appalling experiences. -Blazing fragments were lulling on them as they'uhcltcred in the river and crocks. Bain has now commenced in some

areas. A message from Adelaide states that a bush lire at Mount Pleasant endangered the town. Flames started in the hills and swept down on Mount Pleasant, fanned by a fierce galo, A second fire broke out and the two, joining forces, burned out farms, telegraph poles, and fencing. Despite the efforts of a thousand firelighters, the flames swept into the town, destroying the Anglican Church and badly damaging a large number of buildings. Nearly thirty thousand acres of valuable country have been destroyed.