Aerial support was deployed from Mangalore to fight a hay fire in Avenel on Thursday afternoon.
Emergency services, including fire trucks from Avenel, Seymour, Locksley and Nagambie, responded to a five-hectare fire that was started by the mowing of hay near Vearings Rd at about 1.20pm.
The farm’s owner Peter Wyllie said his cropping contractor had just finished his first lap of mowing the paddock when a fire started behind the mower.
Mr Wyllie and his contractor had thought they had contained the fire to the same paddock before a strong northerly wind fuelled the fire into an adjoining paddock.
Mr Wyllie said this year’s cropping season had been “great”.
“You can see that from how tall it (the remaining crop) is,” he said.
“I thought I was going to lose the lot.”
The fire is now under control, but emergency services will remain in the area and continue mopping up.
Read more on this story at the Corowa Free Press
