DELUNGRA came within metres of danger on Tuesday when a grass fire, believed to be deliberately lit, threatened to burn homes on the village's western side.

Fanned by wind gusts of up to 60km/h, the fire raced towards a line of homes, but was beaten back in the nick of time by the Inverell and Delungra Rural Fire Services and a handful of volunteers.

One unoccupied home was saved by no more than three metres when authorities quenched the blaze which quickly travelled east through a large patch of the Delungra Common at about 4pm.

Fire services contained the blaze on the southern side of the highway only to turn and find burning grass, blown across the Gwydir Hwy, had started a fire on the northern side.

Inverell Police assisted at the fire, slowing traffic through a stretch of highway with low visibility caused by the smoke.

Inverell Rural Fire Service inspector Terry Kitching said the fire came "perilously close to homes", even melting the plastic cladding on one.

He said the service was yet to discover the cause of the fire, but the blaze was being treated as suspicious.

"There's no apparent cause, but it definitely didn't start from natural causes," Inspector Kitching said.

He said the service believed someone may have lit the fire not far from the silos on that side of the village.

Insp. Kitching said it had been a bad day to battle a fire, due to the wind gusts Glen Innes Rural Fire Service had measured as up to 60km/h.

"It was good fire weather – good for lack of control," he said.

Delungra resident Robyn Fagerlund watched the fire burning towards her property, which backs onto the common.

"We were standing at our back fence thinking 'yep, that's close'," Mrs Fagerlund said.

"I went through the Canberra fires and I know how quick the wind can catch it.

"It's quite terrifying when you know how quickly it can happen.

"On the positive side, at least we won't have any problems with fires this summer."

Mrs Fagerlund said it was lucky one of the residents had mowed a large patch of council land, which was usually very high and would have fuelled the fire as it came towards the houses.

© 2006 Inverell Times

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