Victorian grain harvest 2020: Harvesters spark dozens of crop fires

Victoria’s bumper grain harvest has been soured by dozens of crop fires, including these dramatic scenes at Meatian. And there’s a common culprit to how most started.

A John Deere grain harvester goes up in smoke at a Meatian farm.

A BUMPER grain harvest has been soured by dozens of crop fires, most of which have been started by harvesters.

The CFA has recorded 17 grass, crop and stubble fires in the Wimmera in the past three weeks, about 40 per cent of which have been started by grain harvesters.

CFA brigades have attended fires at Minyip, Rupanyup, Ashens and Lah in recent weeks.

Fires have also been reported in the Mallee near Sea Lake, Nyah West and Meatian in the past fortnight.

At Meatian, a John Deere harvester was lost after the machine caught on fire while harvesting.

The fire destroyed the harvester and spread through crops until it was brought under control by ground crews and a helicopter dropping water.

CFA deputy chief officer Alen Slijepcevic said a number of crops also caught fire in the Shepparton and Mooroopna area last week.

The CFA said on average, its crews attended more than 200 harvesting related fires every year.

At least one recent blaze had Phos-Chek fire retardant dropped on it but Mr Slijepcevic said that was rare.

Phos-Chek is a red powder compound mostly made of fertilisers, di-ammonium sulphate, di-ammonium phosphate and mono-ammonium phosphate.

Mr Slijepcevic said it had been approved by the Environment Protection Authority and would not contaminate food crops.

“We rarely use it on crops,” he said.

“Retardant is pretty expensive, so we don’t use it very often.

“We usually drop just water but sometimes use foam.

“And if we use retardant, we have to put it in front of the fire and is some distant away.”

Insurance companies often cover against fire retardant damage.

Elders Insurance said its broadacre insurance policy covered losses from firefighting.

An Elders spokeswoman said that included losses in yield from fire retardant chemical being applied to the crop.

“This is capped at $50,000,” she said.

The CFA said it was important grain farmers keep harvesters regularly maintained and cleaned.

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