Orroral Valley fire inquiry hears pilot of helicopter that started blaze did not see long grass before landing

Dramatic accounts of how an army helicopter codenamed Angel 21 started a fire in the Orroral valley in January 2020 during a toilet stop, have emerged from the first day of evidence in the coronial into the disaster.

The fire burned nearly 90,000 hectares of the ACT, also burning into the Clear Range in New South Wales, laying waste to farmland along the way.