A major forest fire suspected to have been a spill over from a nearby farmland blaze, destroyed young pine trees over 150 acres of land at Tavakubu in Lautoka in 1978.
This was reported in The Fiji Times on Wednesday, September 6, 1978. Over 70 policemen and Fiji Pine Commission employees fought the fire for about four hours soon after in began at 11.30am.
The commission’s information officer, Mark Calhoon, said losses would be “extremely heavy” if the ravaged area failed in the next few months to get adequate rain. Officials had hoped rain would help some of the trees to regenerate.
Mr Calhoon said the blaze was the biggest single pine fire in two years, destroying about 90,000 trees.
A series of fires in 1976 destroyed trees on over 70 acres of land at the Lololo Station in Lautoka. Damage from the latest fire could run into thousands of dollars..
Mr Calhoon said the commission was still working on the chances of regeneration and the possible monetary loss from the fire.
He said it was suggested that the fire was caused by a spill-over from an adjacent farmland fire.
But police, who arrived at the scene within minutes of the fire with a truckload of 10 men, were still looking into the possible causes, he said.
The commission called up its entire fire-fighting equipment and men from its Lololo Station, and other employees from its head office in the city, to fight the fire.
Mr Calhoon said the trees destroyed were all on a twoyear-old plantation.
The commission again appealed to people to be careful when lighting fires in the current dry condition. Mr Calhoon said it would be “very discouraging” if it was established that the fire began from the farmland fire.
The commission has, over a large part of this year, been carrying daily information slots on the radio giving the fire danger index for pine areas.
