Farm work was halted yesterday morning for the Gwerder family after their farm shed caught ablaze on Tuesday night.
A total of 26 firefighters from Eltham, Kaponga and Stratford battled the fire on the Anderson Road farm.
``The shed was fully involved when we arrived, mainly due to the amount of farm machinery,'' says Deputy Fire Chief Dave Waite, of Eltham.
The fire, caused by an electrical fault on one of the tractors, required 42,000 litres of water to put out. The farm is owned by Alex Gwerder and his two sons, Mark and Paul.
``It was like cannons going off,'' says Lisa Gwerder, Paul's wife.
``It's just machinery, we're fine. It's not like we lost things that we can't replace.''
Due to the distance between the house and the shed, Lisa says there was no sense of danger.
``It couldn't really spread to the house.''
The family were made aware of the fire at around 7pm, when their five-year-old daughter spotted the black smoke outside.
``She was at the ranchslider and said `mum, it's all black outside','' she says.
Dave says that he hopes farmers think carefully about water resources when they are building their sheds.
``We want to remind farmers to think of alternative water supplies,'' he says. An underground tank or creek are just two of the options Dave says farmers should consider, in case the firetrucks run out of water.
Tractor fault lights up Eltham shed
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