Charlotte Varcoe
FIREFIGHTERS who battled a blaze at Mount Gambier’s Crater Lakes for 38 hours were stood down on Wednesday evening following welcome rain.
The fire was first reported to authorities at about 2.30am on Tuesday, with the glow of flames visible from across town.
About 50 hectares was burnt in the Crater Lakes area.
More than 125 firefighters attended the fire with 20 trucks from the Country Fire Service (CFS), Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) and National Parks combined.
Four water bombers, two black hawk helicopters and two observational helicopters were part of the firefighting effort.
The fire began near Centenary Tower and, with the area being difficult to access, firefighters had to run a one kilometre hose up the crater in an effort to fight the flames.
The fire soon moved to both sides of the crater rim including into pine trees growing on the outside of the crater and tree remnants on the inside of the crater rim.
The terrain was too dangerous at the time to fight the fire on foot and instead volunteers developed fall-back lines and back-burned around the area to contain it.
Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) incident controller Scott Thompson said volunteers were grateful for the rainfall on Wednesday.
“Our firefighters have been working so hard over the past week, between the Coles fire and here, it has been a mammoth job for them,” he said.
“We will maintain about a 50 metre break around the whole fire as there is still some activity in the trees and we think it may slowly burn for about a week.”
State Emergency Services (SES) volunteers also assisted with logistics including moving items and providing meals and drinking water.
“The SES volunteers have really stepped up and helped us out recently and are also pretty worn out because they were a part of the Coles fire too,” Mr Thompson said.
“All volunteers have jobs as well and some needed to get back to work and keep meals on the table and we just all want to thank them for their support.”
Mr Thompson said there was an incident Tuesday morning with volunteers spotting a drone travelling over the top of the Blue Lake Bar and Bistro towards the cemetery.
“Due to the incident with the drone we did have to ground the aircraft for a half an hour as we needed to either find the person, the drone or wait for it to run out of batteries,” Mr Thompson said.
“Once it was reported to the public as to why the aircraft was grounded, there was a big stir on social media about the drone and we think that deterred future incidents.”
Mr Thompson said a majority of the roads which were previously closed would be reopened, except for the roads travelling towards the Valley Lakes.
“We just want to thank the volunteers and everyone who has helped in the last couple of days,” he said.
“Also thank the community who has helped out with various things.”
The cause is not yet known and anyone who saw or heard any suspicious activity in the area is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
