Artillery exercise causes SA grass fire A ROUTINE military exercise with smoke grenades and simulated explosions sparked a grass fire on a training facility north of Adelaide at the weekend, defence officials say. The blaze at the Cultana Training Area near Whyalla destroyed about three square kilometres of grass and scrub on Saturday. A defence spokesperson said an internal investigation determined the fire started during the artillery exercise. "In accordance with range standing orders, members of the unit involved took immediate action, briefly containing the fire," the spokesperson said. However, the fire reignited, becoming large and fast moving. Defence personnel immediately left the area and contacted range control. The Country Fire Service was notified and contained the blaze that night. Two defence personnel at Cultana suffered minor smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion and were treated at the scene by medics before returning to duty. Earlier this week the Rural Fire Service (RFS) in NSW also found explosives training on army land at Marrangaroo on October 16 sparked the State Mine bushfire, which burnt out more than 46,000 hectares around Lithgow.