On 2 December 1998, a fire six km north of Linton (30 km south-west of Ballarat in western Victoria) burnt 660 hectares of private and public land. During the evening two CFA tankers became trapped. One successfully took survival action. The other was destroyed by fire and its crew of five volunteer fire fighters died.

The Coronial Inquest commenced in mid July 2000 and the hearing of evidence concluded on 5 April 2001. An additional sitting for 2 weeks in late June 2001 was undertaken to process formal submissions from the parties.

The State Corner produced a report on 11 January 2002, entailing 55 recommendations.