Ashleigh Jensen helps to put out fire on King St near Gunalda school

A store manager, first on scene at a blaze near a country school between Gympie and the Fraser Coast, has recalled the frightening moment she was forced to fight the flames and why she’s sure the fire is suspicious.

By the time fireys arrived, the blaze had grown in size.

The daily commute home for a Gympie store manager took a frightening turn when she saw a fire burning near the Gunalda State School, with no one monitoring it.

Ashleigh Jensen said it was just before 7pm on Thursday night when she spotted the blaze on King St and Balkin St and pulled over to investigate.

“I pulled up and I was like ‘oh my god what the hell am I going to do?’,” Miss Jensen said.

“I looked around for anyone and there was no one (and) straight away I’ve gone ‘that’s really bad’, because if there’s no one here controlling the burn that would be pretty crazy at this dry time.”

The fire at Gunalda, near the state school, when Miss Jensen first noticed it.

By this point, the fire was about 1m by 30cm and Ms Jensen grabbed a towel out of her car and starting smacking it out.

When the fire services arrived at 7pm, the blaze had spread and Miss Jensen feared it would burn out of control.

“It spread really quickly in a matter of minutes,” she said.

“I thought it was going to take out the house that was in between the school and this block of grass so I thought this is just going to be really devastating.

“That block of grass is big so it could’ve just kept going and going.”

Luckily, fireys were able to extinguish the fire by 7:10pm and made the area safe.

The fire at Gunalda was extinguished 10 minutes after Miss Jensen arrived.

The fire burnt approximately 20sqm of grass in total.

Miss Jensen said it was “too far” off the road to be a cigarette and after talking to a woman across the road, she discovered someone had fled the scene minutes before she pulled up.

“It had literally just been lit and the lady said she saw someone running away from there and said it's a wonder you didn't see him because he ran in the direction of me coming through,” she said.

“It was absolutely arson.”

The cause of the fire is now under investigation.

Originally published as Ashleigh Jensen helps to put out fire on King St near Gunalda school