On Saturday morning the owner of Long Neck Farm, Corie Ross prepared for a huge last day but found power to the Goomburra Valley had dropped. When he investigated, Corie discovered a phase from a power line had fallen and being live, had started a fire on a property and roadside. Fortunately he had just completed a refresher course on electrical low voltage rescue the day before.
“I contacted 000, started to control the fire and kept people a distance away from the live area” Corie Ross said.
“With the help of neighbours and Goomburra Valley Campgrounds, we kept it under control until the fire brigade arrived.
“We then switched to traffic control assistance and that’s where we discovered the wire had actually fallen across the road further up the hill and visitors were actually unknowingly driving over the line for the past 30 minutes.
“Once the police arrived, the valley access was then cutoff to all traffic until Ergon could make it safe, which was about midday.”
Queensland Fire Department had seven units attend the vegetation fire which took about 40 minutes to extinguish.
Saturday 31 August will stay in the memory of The Long Neck Farm along with guests at a wedding held at Gordon Country.
This article appeared in the Allora Advertiser, 4 September 2024.
