THE BUSH FIRES.
SAVING A SAWMILL.
FIGHT WITH THE FLAMES.
ANXIOUS TIME IN THE NAINAI VALLEY.
While reports have been coming to hand of devastation and suffering from bush fires abroad, near at home men have been engaged in a desperate struggle to avert disaster. Messrs. Strand Bros.’ sawmill stands at the head of the picturesque Nainai Valley, four or five miles beyond Lower Hutt, and the hills on three sides rise precipitously. The ridges, which until this week have been covered in thick green manuka scrub, out of which rose solitary half-burnt trees, extend away irregularly, north and south. Nearly three weeks ago a fire appeared away in the north, coming apparently from Stake’s Valley, and another in the south, some distance at the back of Mr. J. Duthie’s property. The two fires gradually ate their way towards one another through the dry scrub, but little attention was paid to their patient progress.
Grave Danger
Halfway through last week, however, a high wind gave a different aspect to affairs; the fires came rapidly down the slopes, and on Sunday Messrs. Strand Bros. could see that their mill and tram-line were in grave danger. The tram-line ascends directly up the steep hill at the rear of the mill, and is manipulated by a steam winch, the powerhouse standing at the top of the ridge. It is by this tram-line that the sawmillers bring logs to their mill from the valleys and flats over the ridge. Its destruction would mean a serious financial loss, and a more serious delay, and on Sunday, when the fires had met around it, the outlook seemed hopeless.
“Sunday,” said Mr. Strand, to a Dominion representative, “was the climax of the fire. Fifteen or twenty men, working relays, fought in the blinding smoke and parching heat with the persistent flames, beating out here and throwing water there. Fortunately, a stream was handy. For a long time the fight was waged over a large area; the men could not work more than three hours at a stretch on account of the smoke, and had to be replaced, but finally the fire was beaten, and the tram-line saved. A few sleepers here and there were destroyed, and one rough bridge required to be replaced, but this was practically all the damage.”
Saving the Mill
To save the sawmill in the valley, the scrub was set on fire in one or two places and kept under control. But since Sunday a constant watch had to be kept. Every precaution had to be taken to keep the fire from a sawdust heap, which would quickly have communicated it to the mill. On Thursday, when the danger seemed over, the flames, which had been working steadily down a small, low spur which terminates a few yards from the sawdust, suddenly blazed up, and, fanned by a varying wind, were soon crackling down the slope. An anxious time was spent, but late in the night the fire died out, and the danger was over. It was not, however, till early yesterday morning that the proprietors were able to relinquish their vigil.
“Yesterday, fortunately, there seemed little need for further anxiety,” and Messrs. Strand Bros. consider themselves well out of a nasty corner. Their whole damage, they estimate, will not amount to many pounds, while the fire has not entered their timber bush to any extent. A log-hauler, away in the depths of the bush, worth £375, also escaped. A quantity of firewood, which had been cut for a Wellington syndicate, became prematurely ashes where it lay on the outward slope of one of the hills. But this did not belong to the firm. Operations at the mill will be recommenced to-day.
After the Fire
The whole face of the hills for two or three miles northward from Mr. Duthie’s picturesque property is badly scorched and blackened. “It was a grand sight on Sunday night,” said a member of the sawmilling firm. “The fire was all around, blazing away at the top, and roaring like a furnace.” While the reporter remained at the mill the fire was burning in various places, and now and then a solitary tree, gnawed by the flames of the scrub, would fall a victim, and come crashing loudly down the steep slope, sending up clouds of smoke and dust. At night a shower of sparks would be seen.
The residents of the Hutt have been having a full display of such fireworks lately. Last evening from the Hutt, scratches of vermilion could be seen through the smoke enveloping the hills. Smoke was all around the town, curling up from the hills on the eastern side and reddening the round setting sun in the west. Though the fire is rampant in portions of the district, it is comforting to have it on the authority of Mr. Strand that the Wainui catchment area had not yet been entered, and that danger is not imminent, as an expanse of open country intervened. The Wainui swamp valley, however, was ablaze last evening.
