Qalitu settlement resident Praneel Deo said he was lucky that his home was still intact on Friday afternoon when a raging bushfire nearly killed their livestock and destroyed their sugarcane farm.

“We were lucky to be at home,” he said.

“If we were not here, I know my house could have been gone too.”

He said they were not sure how the fire started, but many of their neighbours were alerted when the fire started spreading.

“It’s parched right now, and it was really windy too, so we were lucky that we could contain it.

“The fire officers came and they stopped the fire from spreading to a nearby school.

“Many of us were trying to contain it so that it didn’t spread to our homes.

“We managed to save our animals and secure our home.

“These fires are getting more and more dangerous and I am grateful that we were here and our neighbours came to help us.

“People should be more careful especially during this time because people’s homes and people themselves are in danger when they have to face these kinds of fires.”

According to the National Fire Authority, within the first 27 days of August, a total of 243 incidents of bush, grass, sugarcane and rubbish fires have been recorded of which 179 were recorded in the Western Division, 44 in the Northern Division and 20 incidents in the Central and Eastern divisions.