Farmer’s fury at cane fire
AN EDMONTON cane farmer estimates he has lost thousands of dollars after youths set fire to his field two days before it was due to be harvested.
Vino Zappala said he could only watch in horror as 17ha of his Logonmeir Rd crop went up in flames on Wednesday.
Police are hunting the group responsible for the blaze which forced residents in the area to evacuate.
Mr Zappala, who has leased the field from John Mann for the past two years, said the full extent of the damage would not be known until the cane was taken to the mill.
But, he said, the field would now need extensive work and cost about $20,000 to regenerate.
About three-quarters of the paddock was burnt out.
“The people that do that are very inconsiderate, it’s a little on the spiteful side, they have no respect,” he said.
“This could have been life threatening too.”
Mr Zappala said the fire had burnt out the field’s trash blanket, leaving it very dry and they would now need to spend about a week working up the soil and possibly introducing mill mud to bring back the moisture.
Queensland Fire and Emergency Services station officer Nathan Sandford said firefighters had initially tried to confine the blaze to a corner of the field, but it got away from them.
He said strong winds had not helped and cane burns quickly. “The heat was pretty intense when it was burning and the residents were right in being a bit scared,” he said.
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