HARD YAKKA: The amount of heat generated by the sun and fire at Elmore yesterday made life tough for firefighters. Picture: Brendan McCarthy
BENDIGO’S aerial fire team joined the ground crews yesterday at a grass fire at Elmore.
Five fire tankers, a support vehicle and a water bombing aircraft were called to the blaze in Reads Lane about 1.30pm.
CFA operations manager Alun Hughson said the fire burned about 5ha of grass land.
“The cause is being investigated,” he said.
Mr Hughson said the fire took about half an hour to contain but fire crews were still mopping up late yesterday afternoon.
“A grader had to be bought in to put a line around the edge to get a proper control line around it,” he said.
“And a DSE crew were there to drop some trees.”
Mr Hughson said today had been declared a total fire ban for the Mallee, Wimmera, Northern Country, and North East districts.
“We’ve had a really protracted hot spell and it’s likely to go on for a while yet,” he said.
“There’s no rain on the system for the next four days or more.
“The weekend was quiet even though the weather was hot and I think people have been pretty vigilant and have been making sure they’re not doing activities that could be potential fire starters.
“We’re really pleased to see that but I guess the message we want to get out there is that the fire danger is not over yet.
“The conditions haven’t changed so we’re asking people to continue to be vigilant and keep up the good work.”