Eve Lamb
A flare-up from a previous fire has been blamed for igniting a grassfire that saw residents in the Newstead and Sandon area issued with a watch and act alert last week.
The CFA issued the watch and act shortly after 2pm for communities of Joyces Creek, Newstead, Sandon, Strangways and Strathlea after the fire broke out about 1.30pm on Thursday.
Fanned by a southerly wind, the fire began expanding in grassland on a private property on the Creswick-Newstead Road at Sandon.
With the fire is travelling in a northerly direction toward the township of Newstead, the CFA called on air support from Bendigo after the owner of the property raised the alarm.
More than 10 units turned out from brigades including Newstead, Franklinford, Carisbrook, Clunes, Daylesford, Smeaton, Hepburn and Moolort.
A shire grader was also used to help contain the blaze by creating a perimeter break.
A DELWP slip-on unit and a forward command vehicle from the Strathloddon CFA group also turned out to assist in containing the fire, as did air support from Bendigo.
Newstead brigade captain Doug Richardson said it took an estimated 30 to 40 minutes to bring the blaze under control after multiple firefighting appliances were quick to arrive on scene.
He said the fire was the result of a flare-up from a small grassfire that was thought to have been fully extinguished the previous day.
“The original fire was caused by a power line coming down on private property on the Wednesday, the day before,” Capt Richardson said.
“There was obviously something that was still smouldering there that hadn’t been noticed and with the southerly wind the following day it flared up.
“It just shows that a southerly wind can also do damage as well as a hot northerly.”
He said the fire had burnt about five hectares of grassland on private property before it was able to be contained.
“No property was damaged except maybe a small amount of fencing damage,” he said.
