mmg.com.au

Warm and windy conditions resulted in a busy Christmas period for the district’s CFA volunteers.

The week began with a callout at 3.44am on Christmas Eve to attend a grass fire at Goddard Rd, Kyabram. This fire resulted in multiple call outs being received, stretching right through the week.

It started when a tree branch fell during high winds, bringing down power lines which set fire to a grassed area.

Kyabram CFA captain Mick Crompton said it took crews about 30 minutes to bring the incident under control. The fire spread across and area of about 200m x 20m.

‘‘The first crews on scene had to deal with strong north easterly winds blowing embers over the road into a dry paddock,’’ he said.

‘‘Thankfully none of these caused any spot fires.’’

Mr Crompton said crews from Kyabram, Tongala, Wyuna, Merrigum, Echuca Village, Undera, Cooma and Girgarre attended and it was around four hours before the site was declared safe.

‘‘In total we were called to the Goddard Rd job five times including Christmas day,’’ he said.

‘‘Had the fire not involved gum trees, some with hollow bases, we would not have had the fire flare up as it did.

‘‘We got called back 10.30am on Christmas morning as very strong wind gusts from the north west had re-ignited the trees.’’

Mr Crompton said fire crews were grateful to local earthmoving contractor Greg Guiney who interrupted his Christmas morning to come out and push the trees over.

Two crews from Bendigo also attended to help cut up some of the problem trees.

‘‘We had a rotating roster from Yambuna, Echuca Village, Tongala, Girgarre and Stanhope to check on the situation right up until 2200 hours on Christmas night,’’ Mr Crompton said.

The Kyabram and Tongala crews were returning for a well earnt Christmas lunch when we were paged to attend a shed fire in Crossthwaite St, Kyabram.

‘‘Once on scene we were confronted with a small shed well alight,’’ Mr Crompton said.

It took crews 10 minutes to get the incident under control.

It is understood police and a CFA fire investigator were called in to determine the cause of the fire.

Kyabram CFA also attended a direct alarm to Target Country in Allan St, Kyabram at 3.16am on Boxing Day but thankfully it turned out to be a false alarm.

‘‘I must praise the hard work performed by all of the dedicated volunteers over the Christmas period. Most put CFA first and Christmas celebrations second,’’ Mr Crompton said.