THE cause of a fire south-east of Harrow that burnt approximately 150 hectares of land on Friday afternoon is currently being investigated.

CFA District Five assistant chief fire officer, Richard Bourke said the fire started about 5.30pm on Friday, January 14, and burnt in terrain that was “rough and difficult” to access.

Mr Bourke said CFA volunteers and workers skilfully combatted the fire, confining it to crop and grassland and containing it later the same night.

“Due to the good efforts of responding CFA fire crews and firefighting aircraft, the fire was contained at 8.30pm that night,” he said.

“The fire was then continually patrolled and blacked out on Saturday and Sunday.

“This was a huge effort by the volunteers in the district.”

Mr Bourke said local CFA crews and volunteers have been extremely busy in the last week, after storms on Wednesday lit multiple fires across the district.

“We had 19 fires resulting from a lightning strike on Wednesday and crews worked in pressing two larger fires just south of Penhurst on Thursday,” he said.

“To then go and respond to this fire just south of Harrow on Friday and to work over the weekend securing this fire was a great effort by all volunteers in this district.

“We also had support from neighbouring districts - district 17 and district 4.”

Mr Bourke said it was important for residents in the south-west to remain vigilant about fire conditions, encouraging them to check the fire safety rating each day. 

“We’re still not through summer and we are asking the community to be vigilant in their activities to ensure their activities don’t contribute to the start of a fire,” he said.

“Be very mindful of when days are of very high or greater than high on the fire danger rating.

“Think seriously about adjusting your activities in accordance with the fire danger rating.”