Friday, 13th January, 1939, will go down in history as the blackest day Victoria has ever known. With temperatures rising to unprecedented heights, and a gale blowing like the blast from a furnace, bush fires swept over the forest areas of the State, leaving behind a trail of death, destruction and misery...

Until Friday, the 13th, though appalling disaster had befallen other places, our own district had escaped comparatively lightly...

On Friday a heavy pall of smoke hung over the district, so that it was impossible to see more than a few hundred yards, but it was realised that with the strong north wind blowing the mills at Buttercup and Upper Delatite were in grave danger. Mr Chistensen ordered the evacuation of the Delatite sawmills, employees and their families being brought to Mansfield, where they took up quarters in the empty coffee palace.

A change of wind to the west relieved the situation, and at night volunteers went to McCashney and Harper’s mill and Buttercup, and worked strenuously day and night burning trails to protect the mills, until rain brought relief on Sunday night.

[MC, 20/1/39]