PLANTATION FIRE AT LEVELS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 19091, 25 January 1932, Page 6

PLANTATION FIRE AT LEVELS.

SERIOUS OUTBREAK ON SATURDAY. r/IND FANS FLAMES. Considerable excitement was caused at the Levels on Saturday afternoon by an outbreak of fire in the large plantation which runs through the properties of several farmers in that locality. The plantation is about three miles in length, and approximately hall of it was swept by flames on Saturday. The wind, which was at its height during the afternoon, aggravated the position considerably, and was. responsible for the fire spreading over a wide area. The origin of the fire appears to have been in an old stack bottom on the property of Mr C. Scannell. The stack had been burnt about 10 days ago, and. it was thought that the fire had completely died out, but, fanned by the strong nor’-wester, it started up again and a quantity of burning straw was blown into the plantation some distance away. The plantation itself was literally choked with dry gorse and undergrowth of about 30 years’ accumulation, and, aided by the wind, the flames were soon roaring through the trees. Assistanoe was summoned, but little could be done, for burning fragments were borne on the wind over a wide expanse, in some cases a mile and a half, and incipient fires commenced in several places at once. When the flames reached Mr A. W. Cargill’? property a fire break was made, but without much effect. Word was then sent to warn Mr H. Stevenson, on whose boundary the fire was encroaching, and in short time some hundred people had collected to lend assistance. It was found that it was impossible to check the flames by beating, and an attempt was made to smother the fire with soil. Spades and shovels were procured from neighbouring farms, and after a long struggle the outbreaks, in the hedges and paddocks were suppressed. The fire came right down to Mr Stevenson’s homestead, and at one stage his stables were in imminent, danger of being consumed. The homestead is surrounded by dry pine needles, to a depth of nearly six inches in plaoes, and when an outbreak occurred there it appeared as though the house and outbuildings would be destroyed. Willing helpers stamped the flames out, however, and serious damage was thus avoided. Meanwhile a large organised partyhad cut a big break in the plantation below Mr Stevenson's place, and here the fire ended, after having raged through one and a half miles of trees. Although numerous straw stacks and hedges were burnt the damage is thought not to be as costly as was at first anticipated. One farmer expressed the opinion that the fire had come at a most opportune time, for it had occurred at a period when there had been nothing much to lose on any of the properties. In burning the dense gorse in the plantation, the fire had removed what had been a menace to the locality for about 30 years.