Crews douse Stratford tractor fire

Photo: Stratford Fire Brigade

 

A fire in Stratford on 5 September left a tractor destroyed and a trailer damaged.

 

CFA firefighters from Stratford, Maffra, Avon, Clydebank and Sale fire brigades responded to the incident on Airly Road at around 4.30pm to find a trailer of sileage and tractor fully alight.

Incident Controller and Stratford Captain Mark Jones said vehicle access was a minor challenge as firefighters had to be mindful of the muddy terrain surrounding the fire.

“The tractor was fully involved when we arrived and we couldn’t extinguish the sileage fire inside the feeder,” he said.

“The property owner used his excavator to pick up the burning material from inside the feeder, exposing it for us to be able to extinguish the fire.

Crews brought the scene under control at around 5pm.

“Everyone worked so well together on scene,” Captain Jones said.

“While we lost the tractor, crews were able to save the feedout trailer which was a good result in the end.”

The scene was declared safe at around 5.15pm.

At this time, the fire is still under investigation, however it is not being treated as suspicious.

As we enter spring, the incident was a timely reminder for landowners operating heavy machinery to take every precaution to avoid a fire, this includes:

• Running regular maintenance checks on farm machinery
  
• The most common cause of heavy farm machinery fires is material collecting on hot engine components such as the manifold, exhaust and turbocharger.
  
• Avoid driving vehicles and motorbikes through dry grass or crop - the risk from the hot exhaust system is high. Driving vehicles with catalytic converters through dry grass and crops is particularly hazardous.
  
• Make it part of your routine to check for straw or grass build-up, and hot bearings.
  
• Check machinery to ensure that spark arrestors are maintained.

 

 

Submitted by	CFA News & Media