The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Vol. 121 No. 24 It was a long, ig day for firefighters from four departments, battling a persistent forest fire rag- ing south of Port Perry on Saturday. Firefighters from Port Perry, Caesarea, Oshawa, and Newcastle worked from noon to well past mid- night, struggling to extinguish the blaze that swept over 200 acres of , mature white pine, seedlings, and scrub, about a mile away from . Shirley Road, near Summerlea Golf Course. Approximately $50,000 damage was 'caused by the fire, which Durham Regional Police believe was started accidentally by campers or fishermen Friday night. Saturday's high winds carried the flames over a huge amount of ground littered with dry brush and needles, that went up like kindling. "Between the ness and the - high winds, it sure didn't help us any," said Scugog No. 1 (Port Perry) Fire Chief Jack Cook. Port Perry received the call at 11:50 a.m., even though the fire was spread over the jurisdiction of battle stubborn fire Scugog No. 2 (Caesarea) and Oshawa. All four fire departments involv- ed worked late into the night, with the help of police, ambulance, and bulldozers owned by Keith Haines and Van Camp Construction. The last firefighters left the scene at approximately 10 p.m., but a few minutes after reaching the fire hall, a crew from Caesarea was called 'Turn to page 20 Man killed in ATC accident A 21 year old Uxbridge area man lost his life May 6 when he crashed . an all-terrain vehicle in a field near Columbus, south of Port Perry. Durham Regional Police said Gregory John Barnett of RR 3, Ux- bridge borrowed the three wheel- vehicle from a friend about 6:30 PM. When he failed to return a short 'while later, the friend went looking for him and found him lying in a water-filled ditch in the field. Efforts to revive the man at the scene by an off-duty critical care Teachers vote on strike option Durham Region's 1200 high school teachers have voted in favor of a strike option if negotiations with the Board of Education fail to resolve outstanding contract issues. The strike mandate vote was held last Friday with 1,075 teachers casting ballots. Bev Tindall, presi- dent of District 17 of the OSSTF saia the vote was 95 percent in favor. And she added this is the first time high school teachers in District 17 have opted for strike action if it is necessary. Ms. Tindall said talks between the tedel hers and the Board came to a halt on May 5, but the teachers have requested a return to the bargaining table. She said there are three main issues of contention as far as the teachers are concerned. The first is the pupil/teacher ratio, which in Durham High Schools is the third highest of 79 School Boards across Ontario. The second issue involves the hir- ing of supply teachers to fill in while a teacher is sick. The OSSTF wants (Turn to page 3) Monday, May 18. at the usual times. Victoria holiday The Port Perry Star will be published a day later than usual next week because of the Victoria Day holiday on The Star offices will be closed for the holiday Monday. Next week's paper will be published May 20 and on sale The deadline for all material for that issue will be 10:00 AM on Tuesday, May 19. The advertising office will be :- open the previous Friday and we would ask that ads be placed on Friday, if possible. The business office of the paper will be open on the Saturday as well. The Victoria Day Holiday is the first long weekend of the summer. We wish all our readers a happy holiday. If you're on the road or out in the boat, please take it easy. nurse failed and he was pronounc- ed dead at Oshawa General Hospital about 8:00 PM. Regional 'Police said the young man was not familiar with the field - where he was driving the vehicle. They suspect the vehicle became air-born over the gully, hit the bank and the impact knocked Barnett backwards off the machine. Last winter, a brother of the vic- tim lost his life in a snowmobile mishap on Highway 47 near Uxbridge. =z * Keith Haines volunteered to pilot his bulldozer through the flames and smoldering dangerous job was shared with a dozer from Van embers of Saturday's massive forest fire, cutting Camp Contr Two Hundred acres of forest succombed to the ravages of fire Saturday afternoon and evening, and despite the best efforts of four fire departments, approximately $50,000 worth of damage was caused, at a site just south of Port Perry. See story for details. ES a swath for the fire to burn itself out. The racting.: