The bushfire warning for Beaufort has been significantly downgraded to an advice message,but an emergency alert remains for Elmhurst as an out-of-control blaze edge north towards Amphitheatre and Avoca.
The updated alerts,issued on VicEmergency just after 4.10pm,have added two watch and act zones and merged two emergency warning zones into a single area near Mount Cole in the Pyrenees Ranges.
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The new emergency warning zone has been issued for Bayindeen,Chute,Elmhurst,Mount Lonarch and surrounds. It extends right to the edge of Amphitheatre on the Pyrenees Highway near the Maryborough-Ararat train line,but the small town is named in a separate watch and act alert instead.
That moderate-level warning zone further ahead of the fire front includes Ampitheatre,Glenlofty,Nowhere Creek and surrounding areas. Avoca,home to about 1400 people,is still in a low-level advice zone,but the watch and act warning area extends right up to Wardlaws Lane on the town’s southern fringe.
Beaufort,a town of almost 2000 people before the wind changed,is now under an advice message telling communities to stay informed. Lexton and Trawalla are also under that alert.
“Southerly winds will continue to push the fire in a north and north-easterly direction over the coming days,” the message says.
Another watch and act alert has been issued for Main Lead,Middle Creek,Waterloo and Raglan – officially home to 223 people. But,instead of telling people to leave now,that warning tells residents it is still not safe to return – indicating that while danger remains,the fire may have already burned through the area.