The Victorian Fires.

Southland Times, Issue 19724, 26 January 1906, Page 2

The Victorian Fires.

! PITIFUL" ' - siix op a PAilttY ■ Perish on THE WAY ;jfROM SCHOOL. A MAN WlffiiiSERVBS A MEDAL. FLAMES LICK AT A /TRAIN. LAMENTABLE - DEATH ROLL. For United Press Association, By Electric Telegraph. —Copyright*

MELBOURNE, Jan. 25. A fire started at Tooracin Gippsland on Tuesday night to the west of the township. It swept round the Hoddle range, ■devastated a stretch of timbered country, destroyed many homesteads, aiid -burned the Methodist Church and State school. . Tho flames, sweeping, up a road, overtook six children named Lonsdale, of ages ranging from three to thirteen .years, and suffocated them before their mother’s eyes. The children, who were on the road from school, became bewildered in the blazing country and smoko, rushed towards the fire, and fell. The mother managed to save the baby, while the eldest daughter,, aged 17, was saved through getting into a creek. During tho lire great, courage and resource wore shown by the State school teacher, who placed 18 children under wot blankets, and saved them all. Standing amid suffocating smoko and flame, he kept throwing water over his charges.' The railway bridge over the Agnes river caught fire, and is still burning. Flames leapt through the -carriage windows of the midday train to Melbourne. The bodies of two married men named wan and Crisp have been found. Several, families are missing.

HUNDRED# HOMELESS, GALLANT FIGHT FOR A RICK MAN. FRIZZLING HEAT. Hundreds are homeless between Fosfefi and Ov/Maj ( 0 tlw 'destruction of .the telegraph lines it is difficult to get particulars. The fire Swept! the! Country v ith appalling rapidity, annihilating fm insteadings, stock and crops, and cutting off in many cased ttvc.mies of escape for settlors. At Woorara West the corpse of an uvalici named Williams was found lying in the centre of the road. Two settlers wore trying to carry the man to a place of safety when, the fire came roaring down on them. They struggled cn. their difficulties being added to by the struggles of the sick man made desperate in the fight to save his life, but the) time came when they had to abandon him and fight for their own lives. They managed to reach a place of safety;

No living thing could stand tho heat. Unprotected animals drooped dead, and loaves withered before the fiery blast. Twenty men, women and children crowded into a four-roomed house at Derry. All were more or less scorched by the heat. The death roll at present is fourteen. A TERRIFIC ORDEAL. MELBOURNE, Ja,n. 25. Received 20th, 1.16' a.m. Old residents of South Gippslanrt who has had many experiences of bush fires 'describe the present outbreak as the most terrible they over witnessed. While not as widespread as tho great fire of 1898, or as destructive of property, it transcends all others in the appalling loss of life and tho awful swiftness with which tho flames swept over the country. It rushed over farms! pml clearings in an avalanche of fire, the (lames shooting 150 feet into the air. It licked up forests of giant trees and dense scrub like magic and it was only a providential change of wind that saved the township. THRILLING EXPERIENCES. Mr Clcmson, President of the Shire Council, had a thrilling experience and it is typical of many others. Ho was working some distance from his house when he saw a wall of fire bearing down on him. He rushed home but the flames had hold of the homestead almost before the inmates could got out. Eight took refuge in a galvanised iron tank and, with the aid of blankets, managed to survive the fiery ordeal, although the stock dropped dead with the intense heat,