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• Cigarette butt blamed for town's losses 

Jump to full article: The Australian (au), 2009-02-09

Intro:

A LIT cigarette butt, possibly thrown from a passing car or truck, is the probable cause of the West Bendigo fire that claimed two lives and destroyed 50 homes.

The fire started about 5.30pm on Saturday in a vacant Eaglehawk block, just 1.5km from Bendigo's city centre, 150km northwest of Melbourne.

Between 6pm Saturday and early Sunday morning, residents in Maiden Gully, California Gully, Long Gully, Eaglehawk and West Bendigo were evacuated.

Fifty CFA crews took several hours to bring the blaze under control.

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