The Evening Post of 21 March 1933 reported:
Serious Flax Fire
Destruction at Shannon
A serious fire which broke out on Friday in the big block of flax owned by the Miranui Company at Shannon has caused considerable loss to the owners and inconvenience and loss of work to the cutters. The fire fighters had a most strenuous time.
Nearly 200 acres of the best flax in the district was destroyed. The estimated loss in flax is somewhere in the vicinity of £4000, besides the value of six months' cutting to the employers. The heavy rain on Saturday night and Sunday morning completed the work of quenching "the fire.