A RING OF FIRE

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17606, 10 January 1929, Page 7

A RING OF FIRE

much/DAMAGE DONE.

HOMES AND BRIDGES BURNED. MANY NARROW ESCAPES. A TOWN IN JEOPARDY. FRANTIC APPEALS FOR AID. (By Telegraph—Press Assn—Copyright.) (Australian Press Association.; (Received Jan. 10, 10.45 a.m.) SYDNEY, Jan. 10. Serious fires are reported from ail parts of the State. The city itself is encircled by a •complete ring of fires and the damage will amount to many thousands of pounds. Eight homes were destroyed in the Leumeah and Minto distrlsts.

The fire is sweeping towards Ingleburn.

The flames crept to within a few yards of the children’s ward at the Coast Hospital, and Lane Cove Hospital is also in danger.. A vehicle bridge over the Georges River has been destroyed. Three houses were burned at Milperra, the occupants escaping only with the clothes they were wearing. Fifteen square miles of country in the Bankstown district have been completely burnt out. A fireman collapsed in the flames but was dragged out to safety. Two women and four children had a remarkable escape from being burned to death or suffocated by the fire, which raged around the military area at Iloldsworth. Finding themselves encircled by llames they locked themselves in the old gaol and were almost suffocated when released. The fire swept over an area of thousands of acres.

Adelond is sending out frantic appeals for men to help to subdue a fire which is sweeping towards the town. Graziers are frantically mustering their stock. Two stations have been destroyed. The excessive heat precludes work until night time. TWO DEATHS REPORTED. SEVERAL OTHERS COLLAPSE. (Jy Telegraph—rress Assn. —Copyright.! (Australian Press Association.* (Received Jan. 10, 2.55 p.m.) SYDNEY, Jan. 10. Yesterday’s heat was responsible for two deaths and several persons collapsed. The following messages were received prior to the foregoing:— HIGH TEMPERATURES. DISASTROUS BUSH FIRES. SMOKE PALL OVER THE STATE. '(By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Con wight.' (Australian Press Association.) SYDNEY, Jan. 9. High temperatures were registered throughout New South Wales last week and reached the peak to-day. The thermometer in Sydney showed a temperature of 86.79 degrees in the morning, 98.5 at 10 o’clock, 101 at 11 o'clock, 104 at noon, and 104.7 at 1 p.m.

The maximum temperature, recorded at 2.30 p.m,, was 106.2 degrees, which is the highest reading for the month of January since 1896, when the record then established was 108.5 degrees, on January 13.

In the same period the humidity fell from 54 per cent, to 18. The Government meteorologist, Mr. D. J. Mares, blames the wind, which in the forenoon changed from cast to northwest, bringing the heated air from the interior, which struck people in the city streets like a blast from a furnace.

The sweltering heat and fierce hot wind to-day were responsible for more disastrous bush and scrub fires in the country. Several suburban houses were destroyed at’ St. Ives, Auburn, and Bankstown, in addition to outhouses and fowlsheds. Thousands of fowls are dead, and suburban gardens are ruined, while vegetable and fruit crops have been spoiled. The scrub around Katoomba is on fire for miles. The majority of the inhabitants are doing their best to protect a petrol depot containing 40,000 gallons of spirit.

Many fences and week-end cottages along the coast have been burned. Reports from country districts state ihst Braidwood and Adelong are completely surrounded by flames. A sawmill was gutted at .Tcntcrflcld. The smoke pall over the State is intensifying the discomfiture of the inhabitants. The officials of the Weather Bureau see no sign of ’relief from the existing insufferable conditions. The beaches are naturally uncomfortably overcrowded with bathers. The competitors at the count? y tennis carnival to-day included many girls, who, owing to the heat, discarded their stockings.