TE AROHA FIRE.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17326, 11 February 1928, Page 7

TE AROHA FIRE.

A FRESH OUTBREAK. TOWNSPEOPLE CALLED OUT. A NIGHT OF ANXIETY. TE AROHA, Friday. The fire which raked the slopes of Mount Te Aroha yesterday and this morning burst forth again with renewed energy this evening after a lull which lasted most of the day. The Arc soon assumed alarming proportions.

At 4.30 p.m. a stiff breeze sprang up and fanned iheir ruined slopes qnew and at 6.30 p.m., with a crackling roar, the left face of the Bald Spur burst into flames. As the bracket; blazed out along a wide front, the alarm was given and the Mayor, Mr R. Coulter, canvassed the town for every available man and boy. The response was immediate, and willing workers rushed to the scene of the outbreak. If the Bald Spur had been mastered by the fire practically nothing could have been saved of the tourist domain and reserve, scenic tracks and bath houses. Even the town itself must have been in serious danger.

The fresh outbreak was right in the water supply catchment area and threatened the town’s already depleted supply. Within a quarter of an hour nearly 250 willing hands were up the mountain combating the llames and formed a circle of heaters. The tire gained on the fire fighters, in spite of their frantic efforts, and so the desperate remedy had to he adopted of settiug lire to an area running parallel with the town’s water supply. When this fire had been started it was followed up by dozens of beaters to divert it so that it would bum crosswise up the incline and burn itself out.

It was a stiff, two-hours’ battle, but by 8.30 p.m. Lhe workers had achieved their object, and, although a further large area of scrub, bracken, ti-tree and bush was dcvasled, the lower reaches of the catchment area and the Bold Spur summit itself, which would have burned like Under, were saved.

By 9 p.m., the main body of volunteers, who, in response to the challenge, had assisted lhe fire brigade so well, left a smaller body to spend the night on the hill.

BRIGADE CALLED OUT. FLAMES WELL BEATEN. TE AROHA, Saturday. At 11.30 p.m. the brigade was called out again because of a fresh outbreak on the Bald Spur, and the left lace of the spur was in danger. The llames rimmed the lower slope of the spur, leaping high into the air and the wind veered round until it was blowing toward the lowu, in which direction the showers of sparks flew. By 12.45 a.m. the llames had been well beaten and directed toward safety and the closest call yet to the Bald Spur was averted by hut 30 yards.