Bush on the Ressom Lane property near Beechworth blackened by a fire that destroyed a house on Friday night. PIcture: BEN EYLES
LIGHTNING strikes kept fire crews busy until early yesterday battling blazes at Tawonga and Sandy Creek.
The fires, though not large, took hold in inaccessible country, making it difficult for crews.
Department of Sustainbility and Environment firefighters tackled the fires overnight on Saturday, while CFA crews carried out checks and mopping up yesterday.
CFA district 24 duty officer Phil Peacock said the two fire sites were being checked late yesterday and probably today to make sure the fire was out.
He said yesterday’s checks were all about making sure nothing was still smoking.
The Sandy Creek fire started when lightning struck bushland on Saturday about 4.40pm.
A second lightning strike 10 minutes later started the Towonga blaze.
Mr Peacock said that while there was no visible fire, each remained an open case for the CFA as a procedural matter to allow further checks by crews.
The checks are considered especially important should there be any rise in the wind that could blow embers beyond the containment lines.
Mr Peacock was full of praise for the DSE crews.
“They did great work last night,” he said.
“The CFA have gone in just to make sure the blacking out is complete within a certain distance of the containment lines.
“Now if you go up there you can see there’s no smoke and no flames.”
About a dozen CFA firefighters inspected the Tawonga fire yesterday morning and again in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, no flare-ups were detected yesterday at the site of a 10-hectare fire just out of Beechworth that destroyed a house on Friday.
Ten firefighting units crews were called to Ressom Lane, south-west of Beechworth, late in the afternoon to fight the blaze, which was contained within an hour.
Firefighters were assisted by a Skycrane helicopter.
The house destroyed was one of two on the farming property, the other the main family residence.
“The building burnt down was an old timber house,” Mr Peacock said.
He said that despite crews getting on scene quickly there was little they could do to save the house.
That was because the fire ran quickly in a straight line to the house from where it started from a lightning strike.
