THE owner of the Eldorado pub watched nervously as a fire threatened to creep over Monument Hill and into the town yesterday.
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Terry Emery could see the flames under a kilometre away from the McEvoy Tavern on Mackay Street.
He said if the fire turned for the town he “had the hoses ready”.
The only thing standing between the tavern and the blaze was a paddock.
“If it gets over the hill into this paddock, that’s when I’ll be really worried,” he said.
“The grass is dry and it will race through there at 100 miles an hour.”
The fire started on a private burn-off north of Cemetery Road about 2pm and went in a north easterly direction.
By 3.23pm a Watch and Act warning had been issued and at 4pm residents of Eldorado were told to evacuate if they did not think they could defend their homes.
Percy Street resident Michael Penney said it was the closest his home had come to a bushfire.
“We started our fire plan, which was to start the fire pump and wet everything down in case the fire came down the side of the ridge, and then evacuate,” he said.
“Living so close to Crown land where we are you have to have a fire plan.
“We are very lucky the wind was blowing toward the ridge and not towards us, if it had been I think we would be in serious trouble.”
More than 100 CFA and DEPI personnel worked to suppress the blaze, which reached 62 hectares at its peak.
But the work of ground crews with 25 tankers, slip on four wheel drives and heavy equipment could only do so much on the rugged terrain.
At 4.21pm a helicopter was called in from Mangalore and brought the fire under control just after 5pm.
Other smaller fires also broke out in the North East yesterday, including grassfires in Clancy Lane, Myrtleford, and two in Mudgegonga.
CFA Hume region acting regional controller Stewart Kreltszheim said the fire season in Victoria had — as predicted — come early.
“The message we need to get out as we move towards fire restriction is if anyone is burning off they need to make sure the fire is properly extinguished when they are finished,” he said.
“They can still held liable and charged for fires under the Summary Offences Act.
“We are approaching a potentially dangerous fire season and people should take care when slashing, mowing, burning off, welding and grinding.”
Crews at Eldorado were blacking out the fire well into the night.
