Blackwater homestead under threat as grass fires spark in Central Qld
Water bombers have been deployed to protect a homestead in Central Queensland as property owners join firefighters in battling a threatening grassfire.
A water bombers is being used to help protect a homestead being threatened by a large grass fire just south of Blackwater.
The property owners were on the ground working alongside Queensland Fire Department to keep the flames at bay after it was phoned in just before 9am Sunday.
A QFD spokesman said about four or five Rural Fire Service crews are also working to get the fire under control.
Emergency calls were made at 8.52am about the fire off Blackwater-Rolleston Rd at Stewarton, he said, with a QFD crew positioning themselves “at the house to make sure it was safe”.
From about midday a water bomber was called in to help dump water on the western flank of the blaze to slow it down from moving towards the homestead.
The QFD spokesman said the property owners were also using their own equipment to help on the ground doing backburning efforts with QFD crews.
He said as at 12.20pm the grassfire was burning on the property and travelling south, southwest.
A second water bomber was also deployed to another fire also off Blackwater-Rolleston Rd at Humboldt, just south of the Stewarton fire, which has been burning for eight days.
The QFD spokesman said called first came in on October 17 about 6pm and multiple crews have been deployed to the fire, which is largely inaccessible.
He said there had been a “bit of a flare up” on Sunday prompting the water bomber to be called in to bring it back under control.
