An illegally modified e-motorbike battery ignited a fire in Warburton on 8 January, sending local CFA crews into a scramble to prevent a major bushfire.
CFA units were paged at around 9pm on Thursday night to a fire spreading on the O’Shannassy Aqueduct Trail after the owner of the e-motorbike called emergency services when their bike’s battery went up in flames.
Warburton CFA captain Ron McIntosh said it was a close call for Warburton, given the extreme fire danger rating forecast for Friday 9 January.
“That’s why we had so many trucks on it, because we didn’t want that festering into today, because that would have been a nightmare to put out with this sort of temperature that we’ve got now,” he said.
Police confirmed with the Star Mail the incident wasn’t being treated as suspicious, and Mr McIntosh said local police reportedly spoke with the owner of the motorbike after the fire.
Rumours were circulating that Ride Time Bikes Yarra Junction had serviced the e-motorbike earlier that day, but the Star Mail has confirmed the bike repair business did not service the e-motorbike.
Mr McIntosh said the fire kept his crews up all night as they worked to black out the blaze.
“It started about 9.30pm I think, somewhere around there was the call-out, and five o’clock was when my last two crew ended up coming back into the station.”
“They’re also my daytime responders, so they’re at home at the moment, hopefully getting some sleep and waiting for the pagers to drop again.”
Mr McIntosh said the e-motorbike owner attempted to extinguish the fire themselves but alerted the CFA after it got out of control.
Without a pinpoint location, firefighters struggled to find the blaze, and it took them 10 minutes to arrive on scene.
Mr McIntosh said the help of a local on Hazelwood Road provided the CFA tankers access to the aqueduct trail.
“All trucks ended up coming in off Hazelwood Road, there’s a property on Hazelwood Road and the chap there that owns it actually opened the gate up for us, as it’s a good access to get up onto the aqueduct through his property.”
A total of five tankers and five slip-ons were used to put out the fire, and units from Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMV) also arrived on scene to chop down trees which were out of reach.
He also urged the public to take more responsibility of their equipment when riding.
“I’m not saying it was an illegal bike, but it may have been. But because it was burnt, it was a bit hard to tell,” he said.
