THE VICTORIAN BUSH FIRES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6125, 11 March 1898, Page 2

THE VICTORIAN BUSH FIRES.

One remarkable feature of the recent bush fires in Victoria was the almost total absence of human fatalities. There were many sensational escapes, thrilling adventures and heroic rescues, and persons who have travelled through the devastated districts marvel that the horror of the conflagrations was not accentuated by the loss of dozens of human lives. In several places little crowds of terrified fugitives found themselves surrounded by a perfect circle of flame, choked and blinded with smoke, yet by a providential change in the wind were given back their lives when on the threshold of an awful death. Some of the . escapes were of a ludicrou. nature, such, for instance, as tho man who arrived home from market with a gallon of whisky under his arm. Turning into his hut on Tuesday night he fell into a deep sleep, and did not recover his senses till Thursday afternoon, .* when he thought he would go out and water his horse, which ho remembered j havino- made fast to his fence. When he L-eached the open air he thought he had been suddenly transferred to another planet. The country for miles around had been swept clean. The only thing that bad escaped was his hut, which was, luckily, built on an open patch. All that ivas left of his faithful steed was a little leap of charred bones. Many of the settlors who had to fight for their homes ire still suffering from pneumonia or bad i jyes. *