Event: Sulufou Village Fire, Malaita

Details

Every house on crowded Sulufou artificial island in Lau Lagoon, Malaita was destroyed by fire in fifteen minutes on 6 July 1958. Seventy-three houses were destroyed, five hundred people were left homeless, ten were badly burned, and one child died. The village was rebuilt, and when St. Paul's church was reopened there in January 1963 two thousand visitors and the Sulufou population of 1,500 attended a three-day feast at which 104 pigs were killed. In 1967, a fund was established to build permanent houses on the island. (NS 31 July 1958, 31 Jan. 1963, 28 Feb. 1969)

Published resources

Journals

• British Solomon Islands Protectorate (ed.), British Solomon Islands Protectorate News Sheet (NS), 1955-1975. Details