As someone who has lived through four floods and two major droughts, Elsmore's Ray Mepham knew urgent action was needed when a fire started on his property "Little Valley" last week.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Over the period of three weeks Elsmore received storms which caused lightning strikes to ignite fires in three different spots, the most recent on Ray's property.
Describing the country as "disastrous" and "explosive", Mr Mepham and his neighbours notified the local fire brigade when they saw the slither of smoke rising from gorge country.
"This was all before the rain, last Tuesday. We were quick to motivate things and get them in place. The neighbours called it in and I stayed by the phone. I'm nearly 90 so I did what I could," he said.
Three brigades, Elsmore, Danthonia and Wellingrove, attended the blaze promptly and were backed up by two helicopters capable of water bombing.
Mr Mepham said the fire was spotted around 2pm and by the evening it was almost under control. He thanked all fire crews for acting so quickly.
"The two helicopters even came back the next day. One stayed until 2pm putting water on it to make sure it was out. Then we had rain, you wouldn't believe it.
"I was happy to see the brigades jump on the fire so quick because in the upper reaches, there is a small colony of koalas in that country. It also protects the Cod fish up there from ash. We're already had a disaster with losing so many native fish with this drought we don't need anymore.
"The Macintyre was getting dry almost right through up here. We've had a metre of water come down from the rain this week and filled it up, which is a godsend."
The two helicopters were using water from one of Mr Mepham's Cod breeding dams on "Little Valley". He was worried when the dam became critically low as it stocked a rare species of native fish.
"Since the rain though, it's looking safe," he said.
Although, Mr Mepham said the danger was still real as 30 years of fuel had stocked up in the form of a leaf canopy.
"We all know how the Tingha Plateau and Goonoowigall fires went. Little Valley has virtually no grass on it and there's a whole built up canopy sitting around this country. If it caught fire, no one would have been able to do anything."
Mr Mepham shared his gratitude for the fire fighters, and helicopter crews, who attended the fires at Elsmore.
