Fire underground at Diggers

On arrival, crews found smoke issuing from seams in the ground of a landfill area that had been used for many years. Due to it being a Total Fire Ban, more resources with Class-A Foam were paged from Melton and Caroline Springs.

Both brigades had already been to the area for an underground fire in the days previous, but with multiple burning pockets of rubbish reigniting overnight, it had sprung up again.

Being such a deep seated fire, and being on very unstable ground, witches hats were set out 10m back from the 20m drop over the edge, for crews not to pass.

“Due to the seams opening up, we were worried once we put water into them to douse the fire, the land would slip away. So we’ve set out a restriction zone and played water on from there” explains Lieutenant Bootle.

After a number of hours using water and foam, crews were released as the fire was brought under control.

Appliances onscene were;

Diggers Rest – Tanker 1, Tanker 2, Car.

Bulla – Tanker 1, Slip-On.

Melton – Tanker, Car.

Caroline Springs – Tanker.

Werribee – Car (with Group Officer Bisby onboard for specialist advice).

The OIC was Lieutenant Bootle from Diggers Rest.

Pictures by Blair Dellemijn – CFA Strategic Communications.