DESTRUCTIVE FIRE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 279, 24 November 1931, Page 1

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE.

Eight Acres of Trees Burnt at Arthur’s Pass. NOT SEEN FOR FORTNIGHT. Burning unnoticed for nearly a fortnight, a ground fire destroyed about eight acres of fine beech trees in the Arthur’s Pass National Park. It was only the rain which commenced to fall at the Pass on Sunday that put out the fire and saved more trees from destruction. As it is there may be a disfiguring patch of burnt timber in place of stately beeches on the slope where the fire took place. Starting near the railway line about three miles from the Arthur’s Pass station, and on the west side of the Bealey Valley at Rugg’s Corner, the fire smouldered away in the beds of decayed vegetation, in some places two or three feet thick. Aided by the dryness of the undergrowth—no rain had fallen at the Pass for four weeks—the fire encroached up the . spur, burning the roots cf the trees to kill them. As there was little smoke, and the tops of the trees were still green, the fire was not discovered until a day or two ago. Impossible to Put Out. The ranger and his assistants, when the fire was reported to them, f.-und that the smouldering mass, akin to a peat-bed, was almost impossible to put out. There was no water, and beating was useless. If the vegetation was stirred up, air reached it and the mass burst into flame. It is not known how the fire originated, but it is suggested that it may have been caused by a spark or a match thrown in the scrub. Valuable from a scenic point of view, it is fortunate that more of the trees were not destroyed. Five years ago there was a similar fire higher up on this spur, and it has left a blackened scar on the hillside to detract from its beauty.