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1939
18 December 1939
CAPERTEE BUSH FIRE BRIGADE
(From Our Own Correspondent)
A public meeting was held in the courthouse on Monday night, Mr. T. G. O'Farrell being chairman. It was decided to form the Capertee District Bush Fire Brigade. The district to be covered is all country between Jew's Creek and Cherry Tree Hill and Vulcan. The Blaxland Shire Clerk (Mr. C. Brown) and the engineer (Mr. Coles) were in attendance and the former outlined the procedure adopted in other centres.
The Blaxland Shire Council is to provide a quantity of fire-fighting equipment. Mr. W. C. Corlis, who was unavoidably absent from the meeting, was chosen as the brigade captain, subject to his acceptance. Mr. T. G. O'Farrell was appointed vice-captain. The following lieutenants were appointed for various parts of the district; - Messrs. H. J. Oliver (Round Swamp), James Mackander (Mount Vincent), H. A. Freestone (McDonnell's Hole), A. Russell (Torbane), W. E. Young (Capertee), Ed. Corlis (Ben Bullen), Reg. Larkin (Jew's Creek), and T. H. Cox (Turon River). The general committee comprises Messrs. W. C. Corlis (chair man), W. H. Corlis, R. Draper, D. Gray, E. Russell, M. Stampfli, junr., R. Russell, T. O'Farrell, W. Young and J. W. Elbourn (hon. secretary). A committee meeting is to be held on Saturday night when all lieutenants are also to be present. At this meeting arrangements are to be made as to what each unit in the area is to do in the event of a fire. A bush fire was reported to be burning in the Horse Gully area, about four or five miles south-west of the town, on Tuesday afternoon. Five men arrived at the fire about 8 p.m. and in a little over three hours succeeded in quelling the flames. Just as the fire was extinguished, steady rain set in and this helped to make the situation safe. The firefighters got a good soaking before they reached the car which had been left a considerable distance from the fire. Practically no damage was done as the fire was in rough scrub land, but only a short distance away there was an abundance of long dry grass1
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