A BLAZING INFERNO

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17613, 18 January 1929, Page 7

A BLAZING INFERNO

BUSH FIRES IN AUSTRALIA. YALLOURN TOWN IN GRAVE PERIL. OVER 1000 HOMES THREATENED BAMBALA ENCIRCLED BY FLAMES. GREAT LOSSES OF STOCK REPORTED. (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian Press Association.) (Received January 18, 11.30 a.m.) MELBOURNE, January 18. With the old open cut of the Yallourn coal mine a blazing inferno and bush fires advancing behind a forty miles wind, the township of Yallourn is in /grave peril. Men, Women and Children are desperately fighting the flames. The homes of over 1000 people are menaced. The settlement rests on the top of the cut. The mine is now a blazing crater, flames shooting 150 feet into the air. Four homes have been destroyed. The powder magazine blew up, and since then trucks, winches, electrical equipment, and coal winding gear have been crashing into the cauldron of flame. Extensive fires have also occurred at Stradboke, where 1100 acres of grassland have been burnt out, and 300 sheep perished. A Bombala message reports that bush fires enclosed the town yesterday. In the delegate district the whole of the residents are fighting the flames, which are raging in all directions. A well-known grazier had five hundred sheep burned. Fire also raged all day at Buckley Springs.