FOUR horses have been saved from a blaze that swept through 15 hectares in Taradale yesterday.

Alison Stone said she rushed home from work after colleagues warned her there was a fire near her home on Old Drummond Road.

“People must have been looking at the app and said 'the fire is heading your way'. I came home and there were lots of fire trucks,” she said.

“It was quite difficult when I first got there to get to the horses as I didn’t have access to any paddocks.

“People had seen two and ascertained they were okay and then a guy drove me around the other side to circumnavigate the roadblocks to get to the others. Luckily they are okay; it could have been nasty.

“Without the sky cranes we would have been lost. I would have lost the house if it wasn’t for the local CFA crews and everyone involved.

“In all honesty it wasn’t too bad, the fences were cut and the pumps to the tank have been burnt and some of the pasture. We are just missing one cat but we are hoping he’s going to turn up.”

Neighbour Barb Bleicher, who is now keeping the horses at her property, said their priority was the animals.

“The CFA stopped us in our tracks when we were trying to get the horses. Our priorities are different, their job is to preserve life and property but we have a responsibility for the animals.

“The big picture is no horses or shedding were damaged, but there is nowhere to put the horses and when they do go home there is no feed.”

A CFA spokeswoman said the fire started about noon after an angle grinder used by a local resident accidentally sparked.

Ms Bleicher said people need common sense when it comes to fire.

"A lot of people move from Melbourne and are ignorant of the facts. They don’t think because they have never had to and it is too late when they learn the lesson.

“We are lucky to have such good volunteers in the CFA.”

Last night the fire was under control with firefighters blacking out and possibly staying on throughout the night.