FIREFIGHTERS spent almost three hours containing and mopping up a large fire in South Albury early yesterday.
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Crews from Albury Civic and the Rural Fire Service attended just after 12.30am and were faced with a 20-metre by 20-metre pile of burning debris in Willowbank Road.
“The debris looked like it had been built up over the years to do something with it,” Albury Civic fire station commander John Vandeven said.
“There were tree trunks and other bits of debris that were ideal for burning.
“It was well alight when we arrived.”
Mr Vandeven said firefighters put their heads together and brought in an aerial pumper to attack the large blaze from above.
“It took a few hours to put out because we had to use an excavator to pull apart the debris and check the fire was all out,” he said.
“It was a big exercise because we also had to ferry water to the scene.”
The cause of the blaze is unknown and will be investigated.
The cause of a small grass fire on Gateway Island yesterday afternoon will also be investigated by police.
Wodonga CFA attended the blaze just before 1pm after a motorist reported the fire near the bike path.
Station officer David Brown said it was a relatively small fire but the location was tricky to access.
“Due to the location we had to access the fire by driving on old tracks under the freeway,” he said.
The 400 square metre blaze was controlled within 20 minutes.