It was a busy afternoon for the region’s fire brigades on Sunday, attending multiple callouts in various locations across a few hours.
At about 2.30pm on Sunday crews from Wandong, Wallan, Whittlesea, Clonbinane, Kalkallo and Wollert were called to the Wallan-Whittlesea Road as a truckload of hay had caught fire.
The section of road near the intersection with Epping-Kilmore Road was cleared at about 9.30pm, with no injuries and minimal damage to the truck.
Wandong CFA captain Yorin Miller said the main priority for crews was to bring the fire under control and make sure the hay would not reignite.
“When we arrived on scene the hay was well alight and it was just basically a case of extinguishing the flames. After we got the bulk of it out, we just had to wait a fair bit for an excavator to arrive,” he said.
“It was just a case of getting it all off, making sure it was all put out properly and then pushing it all off the side of the road and clearing it all up. It was a pretty good effort from everybody.”
The truck driver left the scene and returned with an excavator on the back of another truck, while a nearby resident also assisted firefighters with a tractor.
Mr Miller said the fire was likely caused by the heat from the truck’s exhaust, a situation that ‘was not unheard of’ but uncommon for firefighters in the area.
Wandong Fire Brigade attended three other separate incidents in the space of four hours on Sunday, as firefighters were called to a burn-off on the outskirts of Wandong, a car accident on the Northern Highway, and a smoking underground electrical pit.
Mr Miller said crews returned to the scene of the hay truck fire yesterday morning to put out anything still smoldering to ensure it was safe.
