BURNING hay that fell off the back of a moving truck at Corryong spread to roadside grass and burnt about 20 hectares of scrub yesterday.
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Country Fire Authority district 24 operations officer Mark Owens said a spark from the truck’s exhaust may have set fire to its hay load.
The vehicle had been travelled on the stock route at Corryong at 5pm.
“It spread burning hay for more than 600 metres before the driver realised,” Mr Owens said.
The damage had already been done with the hay setting fire to grass on the roadside, burning scrub.
Mr Owens said the truck caught alight and was destroyed, but the driver escaped unharmed.
He said firefighters spent hours last night putting out the fire that posed no threat to property.
The cause is being investigated.