SCRUB FIRES SPREAD RAPIDLY

Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22784, 7 January 1944, Page 4

SCRUB FIRES SPREAD RAPIDLY

Maori Troops Check

Outbreak

(N.Z.P.A.) AUCKLAND. Jan. 6. Further concern was caused in the Rotorua district in an entirely new direction this morning, when fire broke out in country bordering Lake Tarawera between Green Lake and Mount Tarawera. The fire spread rapidly through dry undergrowth and threatened the caretaker’s house at Lake Tarawera and the vicinity. At one stage at Lake Tarawera the caretaker’s residence and other hutments were completely encircled. Later the fires started to swing toward the tearooms at the buried village and the scrub country surrounding it. The continuation of the fire created a serious menace to the Governmentplanted forests edging the Blue and Green Lakes. The Forestry Fire Patrol sent an urgent call to the Commander of the Maori troops and a detachment was quickly sent to the scene, complete with steel helmets and fire fighting equipment. The detachment proceeded to cut firebreaks and to take other precautions. but toward evening the threat had abated.