A grass fire at Reservoir Hill in Condobolin that began on Saturday 18 February is all but out now, with local firefighters continuing to monitor the situation. 

“We’re still having issues with it today like little trees and things like that causing problems but we had it under control by about 8:30pm on Saturday,” said Steven Brasnett from Condobolin’s Fire and Rescue team. 

The fire started around 2:00pm on Saturday, east of McDonnell Street between Brady Street and Cunningham Street. 

At the time, the temperature had reached 41 degrees.

Firefighters were working on the scene to protect residential homes in the area until late in the evening, with many local and surrounding rural brigades called in to assist. 

Rob Neal from the Mogandale Rural Fire Brigade was one of the first on the scene. 

“It took a good four or five hours to really get it under control,” he said. 

“We were working with about five or six other rural fire brigades including Derriwong, Borambil, Barratta and Boona, but luckily only a few houses came under threat and none were seriously damaged,” said Mr Neal. 

In an effort to control the blaze a helicopter was sent to assist, but due to the fire’s location in a residential area a fixed wing aircraft couldn’t be used which resulted in one needing to be called all the way from Dubbo.

“Unfortunately by the time it got here it needed to go back to refuel, so although the help was much appreciated it didn’t have a really big impact,” said Mr Brasnett. 

At 3:38pm the fire was burning in a north easterly direction past the lookout on Brady Street where firefighters were attempting to hold it along Maitland Road.

The fire was under control by dark and a number of firefighters remained on duty overnight to continue watching it. 

The fire ended up taking out 31ha of bush land at Reservoir Hill, with no serious damage caused to houses or sheds.

“It was certainly a big wake up call for the people who live in that area who really need to be prepared because they live in bush land,” said Mr Brasnett.

“At Condobolin Mill the shed’s roof caught on fire due to a bit of rubbish in the gutters but we extinguished that and saved that shed,” said Mr Brasnett. 

“He had a bit of gear out in the yard but I assume that gear probably wasn’t worth protecting so that sort of stuff would have got damaged but we didn’t lose a house or a shed or anything significant,” he confirmed.

“Our top priority was saving residential homes which we were very successful in and it was just an amazing job done by everyone, particularly the Rural Fire Service who we wouldn’t have been able to do it without.” 

Both Mr Brasnett and Mr Neal made special mentions to Ross Brothers who used their grader to install breaks around the fire to contain it, and to the Rapid Relief Team who catered for all the firefighters.

At this stage it is unconfirmed how the fire started but it is expected that fire investigators and police will be on the scene today trying to ascertain that.