FILE PHOTO.
The Beveridge family were minutes away from sitting down for Christmas lunch yesterday, when they were alerted to a fire on their property by Neighbour, Michael De Mestre.
Around 1:30pm yesterday, smoke was seen coming from a gully on ‘Eulie’.
Lightning had struck a tree on the property, sparking the small blaze which spread in to a gully and then into a wheat crop. The 6.5 millimetres of rain the previous evening may have helped prevent the fire from taking hold. It entered an unharvested wheat crop before being extinguished.
Barb Beveridge said “If it was a stubble paddock it may have taken off, it must of hit the tree the night before and kept smouldering, the tree is burnt half way up, we were very lucky”
Barb said she would like to thank Micahel Demestre and Andy Hufton for attending the fire.
The RFS sends out notifications to property owners, detailing where lightning strikes occur. She said that the message they got was that the lightning strike was on a neighbouring property.
Christmas lunch was not ruined and the family were able to sit down together when they returned.
“We had a warm lunch, it was still sitting in the oven, we were just fortunate we were at home and not at other homes of family members.”
