THE cause of a fire which burnt 170 hectares near Mount Burr Road at Monbulla has yet to be determined, emergency personnel say.
Around 13 Country Fire Service (CFS) units responded to the fire – as well as four water bombers, private water utilities and forestry equipment – which ignited around 4pm on Monday.
Police are conducting an investigation into the incident.
Wattle Range CFS group officer Fred Stent said the fire had three heads, with bomber planes quickly deployed to help fight the blaze.
“It was a reasonable amount of burnt area,” he said.
“At 5am on Tuesday morning there was also a report of a blaze close to the original fire,” Mr Stent said.
“This report was trees we had left behind that we would tend to later that morning.”
Mr Stent said the potential for fires around the Penola region was always likely and urged community members to clean up their properties and reduce fire fuel.
“Hopefully after this people are going to be more responsible,” he said.
“All of this should have been done before the bushfire season.”
Mr Stent congratulated all involved in fighting the fire, saying it was the most water utilities on site he has seen so far.
“It was a great effort from the people and those privates,” he said.
“We had some great help out there.”
