Harcourt residents were on high alert on Friday afternoon following the re-ignition of a fire that was believed to have been extinguished on Thursday afternoon.
A Watch and Act message was issued for residents at Harcourt, Harcourt North, Ravenswood, Ravenswood South, Sedgwick and Sutton Grange shortly after the CFA was notified of the grassfire spreading just before 1pm on Friday.
Speaking soon after the flare-up became apparent, Harcourt CFA brigade captain Andrew Wilson told the Express air support had again been deployed and 22 appliances were on scene.
Considerable resources and effort had gone into attempting to stop the spread of the initial blaze in difficult terrain on Thursday afternoon.
“(Thursday’s fire) was caused by lightning strike and it burnt about 13 hectares,” Harcourt brigade’s Tyrone Rice told the Express.
Mr Wilson said Friday’s fire burnt another 22 hectares.
“We actually found another rock on Friday that had been hit by lightning, so it could have been a flare up or the result of another lightning strike from Thursday,” he said.
“A strike team from the Coliban Group stayed on scene until about 11.30pm Friday night and another eight brigades returned on Saturday continuing to make it safe and checking the entire perimeter of the fire with thermal imaging cameras.
“It was an amazing effort from all personnel/brigades involved who turned out to support us.
“Thank you very much.”
