Western half of Victoria on alert from looming fire danger

Emergency services have warned thatWednesday’s extreme weather conditions could create a fire risk for anything west of the Hume Highway as a large bushfire continues to burn in Victoria’s west.

Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes confirmed six homes had been destroyed near Raglan,about 60 kilometres north-west of Ballarat,butfire impact assessments were ongoing.

“That is very sobering news for those families,” she said.

Residents of more than 25 towns and hamlets in western Victoria,including Amphitheatre andElmhurst,have been told it is not yet safe to return to their properties.

An emergency warning was issued for Chute and Mount Lonarch at 5.39pm on Sunday over a fire near Bayindeen Rocky Road that was burning out of control and travelling east towards Amphitheatre Road.

Residents were told to take shelter indoors immediately as it was too late to leave.

About 18,000 hectares have burnt in western Victoria sincethe fire started on Thursday.

“Firefighters have been able to slow the spread of fire for now,but the situation can change at any time,” VicEmergency said on Sunday.

On Saturday,Country Fire Authority chief officer Jason Heffernan warned that hot and gusty weather conditions forecast for Wednesday could potentially lead to Victoria’s worst fire day in four years.

Symes said fire conditions this week could be dangerous.

“We are expecting temperatures around 40[degrees] and the high 30s everywhere from the coast up to and across to the central region. So basically,anything west of the Hume would be areas of concern for the state,including our central regions,which does go into parts of Melbourne,” Symes said.

The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting Mildura will reach a temperature of 44 degrees on Wednesday and Swan Hill will hit 42 degrees.

“What we know already is that the indicators are in the extreme range,” Symes said.

“Given the hot weather that we have had in recent weeks,a lot of drying has occurred particularly in the west of the state ... We’re expecting not only high temperatures,but also wind is expected.”

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Fire chiefs were to meet with the Bureau of Meteorology on Sunday to discuss the dire forecast.

Ballarat incident controller Jon Rofe toldThe Agethe region was expecting temperatures in the mid-30s on Wednesday. Strong north-westerly winds would likely blow through the fireground before a south-westerly wind change late in the afternoon.

“If we’ve got fire running freely in the landscape under the north-westerly,any wind change will cause quite dramatic fire behaviour,right on that change and straight after,” he said.

Crews are now working on creating containment lines of bare earth around the fire’s edge – which has a perimeter of 150 kilometres – and back-burning in dense bush areas that haven’t been touched by flames and can’t be reached by machinery. By 3pm on Sunday,crews had created 64 kilometres of containment lines.

Rofe said the fire had grown during warmer and drier conditions on Saturday afternoon,but milder weather into Sunday meant the fire had not increased substantially in size.

He said it was a priority to allow residents who were cut off from their properties to return home,and small reductions would be made to the watch and act warnings if roads were made safe on Sunday.

About 500 firefighters remain on the ground fighting the fire.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday his government would provide the support Victoria needed to combat the bushfires.

“I say to people:listen to the advice of the authorities. We need to make sure that we watch and act when that advice comes through,” he said.

With Roy Ward

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