mmg.com.au

District firefighters were kept busy on Friday and Saturday with several call-outs.

The biggest of the fires was at Torrumbarry on Saturday morning when firefighters from seven brigades battled a grass fire which burnt about 15 to 20 hectares.

Firefighters were called to the fire at 11.45am, but it was not completely out until about 4pm.

The fire came close to a haystack and farm shed.

Torrumbarry, Leitchville, Gunbower, Kotta, Lockington and Bamawm Extension fire brigades attended.

It is not known how it started.

■Coolers were used to put out a small grass fire in Wharparilla on Friday afternoon.

Torrumbarry Fire Brigade captain Tyson Williams said the fire started after a wire shorted out in a ute which was towing a boat and lit up grass on the side of the road.

The ute’s occupants used coolers to tip water from a nearby table drain onto the fire, which was out by the time the fire brigade arrived.

Only a small area of grass on the side of the dirt road which is off Farley Rd, was burnt.

■One Lockington Fire Brigade member used a fire extinguisher to put out a small fire in the back yard of a Deakin St house in Lockington on Saturday afternoon.

The fire brigade was called to the suspicious fire just before 1pm.

■A small grass fire at Yambuna on Friday is believed to have started from a wheel hub nut coming off a passing truck and igniting the dry grass.

Tongala, Yambuna and Wyuna brigades attended the fire which burnt an area about 100m by 15m along the side of the Murray Valley Hwy.

The brigades were called at about 1.10pm and had the fire under control in about five minutes.

The Tongala brigade was called back to the site at 5.24pm that afternoon after a smouldering area re-ignited.

The second fire burnt a similar sized area of grass along the roadside, but it could have been much worse if it was not for the efforts of two passers-by.

Tongala Fire Brigade captain Dave Wright praised the efforts of Andrew McMinn from Rich River Horizontal Boring and Alistair Honey from Balfours Buses who fought the fire before the brigade arrived.

Mr Wright said the pair had been driving along the highway when they spotted the fire and decided to help extinguish it with water Mr McMinn was carrying in his truck.

‘‘We’re very grateful to them,’’ Mr Wright said.

‘‘They did a great job.’’