The first I knew that there was a fire going was when my mum called out from the back garden, where there is a clear view across the intersection. We all rushed to the lounge-room window, and as soon as I saw how big the fire was I ran outside and hopped on my bike. Below is a photo of the fire (looking from the road in just up from our place) after it had burnt about half of the paddock.
Riding closer, I could see two men trying to contain the fire by smothering it with their shirts. They were doing a fairly good job of it, although they were only concentrating on the left side of the paddock, although the fire was heading towards the right.
About 3 minutes after I arrived a grader from the road-works (I think that was where it came from) arrived and started to build a firebreak up the left side of the fire It soon reversed, however, as I think that the fire was too hot. After a while the Bungundarra rural fire brigade arrived. There wasn’t much for him to do, so he drove up to where the two men who were at the fire first were standing. Below are a few photos of the grader and rural fire brigade.
Once the fire had died down a bit, I rode up on Bungundarra road to see how far the fire had reached. The fire had stopped at the edge of the paddock, probably because the grader had created a firebreak along the boundary. Riding back, I almost ran over a snake that was crossing the road. About 15 metres on I saw another snake by the side of the road, this time a baby yellow one.
In conclusion, I think that the tractor (which was bailing hay in the paddock to left of the one that caught fire) started the fire somehow. My dad agrees with me on this. It’s just a good thing that the grader came along or the fire might have leaped into the next paddock and so on.
[tags]woodbury, adelaide park, bungundarra, yeppoon, grassfire, fire, grass[/tags]
