CFA issues winter warning after three devastating fires in Macedon Ranges
ITS been two weeks like no other for fire crews in the Macedon Ranges with three properties gutted in massive blazes, including one where a 96-year-old was lucky to escape.
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A 96-YEAR-OLD woman is lucky to be alive after her timber house at Mt Macedon was destroyed by fire within less than an hour.
The historic Mt Macedon Rd property known as Durrel was razed to the ground last Wednesday.
The house built in 1901, which survived Ash Wednesday, was engulfed in flames shortly after a log fell out of a kitchen fireplace. The woman and her carer were able to escape, but her dog died in the fire.
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CFA duty officer Andy Waterson said the blaze took hold within minutes.
“We escalated the fire before we were there and called for extra equipment out of Gisborne, Riddells Creek and Woodend,” Mr Waterson said. “We tried to salvage what we could but the fire had spread across the house.”
It comes after the bluestone homestead owned by celebrity TV chef Tonia Todman in Kyneton sustained extensive damage last Monday when a guest noticed a fire in a flue.
The old stables in Donnelly Rd were being rented out as a bed and breakfast.
The three guests were safely evacuated.
The property known as Highbank had been restored, after being built in 1848.
Woodend CFA Captain Mike Dornau, who attended both fires and a third fire which destroyed a Harpers Rd property on July 1, said local firefighters had never seen a winter where three such significant fires happened so close to one another.
“The fire at Harpers Rd was the biggest house fire many of us had seen in 25 years and the Mt Macedon Rd one was even bigger,” Mr Dornau said.
Mr Waterson described winter as “the forgotten fire season” and urged residents to be cautious with heaters.
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