Bushfire threatens communities in Victoria’s south-west as temperatures soar across the state

A bushfire is threatening communities in south-west Victoria after it escaped control lines, as a heatwave continues to scorch the state.

An Emergency Warning for the bushfire at Carlisle River in the Otways was issued on Saturday afternoon, with a dozen towns south of the fire, including Beech Forest, Carlisle River, Charleys Creek, Ferguson, Gellibrand and Wyelangta, told to take shelter.

“This fire is threatening homes and lives. It is too late to leave the area safely, so you must take shelter now,” the warning said.

Forest Fire Management Victoria state agency commander Steve Pellicano said the plume from the Carlisle River fire was 6 metres high and he described it as “very dynamic”. 

“There are still winds coming in that will move that fire to the north. That’s why we are concerned with the direction it’s heading.”

He said crews on the ground hoped to contain the fire within public land overnight.

A further “leave immediately” Emergency Warning was issued to towns east and north-east of the fire, including Barongarook, which is where the blaze was expected to move due to a wind change. 

Mayor of the Colac Otway Shire Jason Schram said while he had not had reports of any houses or structures lost, he was “praying everyone has a fire plan ready or has found somewhere safe to stay”.

He was hopeful that the wind change would protect the town of Gellibrand.

“We are hoping the luck of the gods is with us and it will go around Gellibrand, and then we’ll see where it goes.”

Mr Schram said the area on fire was heavily forested with big gum trees, but did include lots of farms and structures off smaller access roads.

He paid tribute to the volunteer firefighters who had been out fighting the fire for so long.

State Control Centre spokesperson David Nugent said the fire, which started on January 10 and took days for firefighters to bring under control, had escaped control lines on the south-eastern edge of the fire.

He said this was due to the hot weather and north-westerly winds.

“That fire is really quite active and dynamic now,” he said.

Mr Nugent said the wind change was making conditions “tricky” for firefighters.

He said a significant number of aircraft and a large air tanker were attempting to contain the fire from above, and ground crews had been deployed to surrounding towns, including Gellibrand.

“We’ve got significant numbers of crews out there trying to do their best with this fire at the moment,” he said.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Christie Johnson said there would be continued south-westerly winds moving about 30 kph and gusting up to 40 kph in the Otways region.

Mr Nugent said the fire would stay active as the winds remained “blustery”.

An air quality alert has also been issued to the Otways, Geelong, Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs, the Mornington Peninsula, parts of Phillip Island and surrounding areas due to smoke from the fire.

Otway Blueberries owner Lisa Agnew said there was an “ominous” feeling on the ground near the Gellibrand fire on Saturday afternoon.

“The sun has gone behind the smoke, and it’s turned the ground a strange yellow colour,” she said.

Ms Agnew said her business was about 1.5 kilometres west of Gellibrand, and said they would take shelter in a cool room if the fire passed over, but their immediate focus was on ember attack.

“We’ve got a firefighting unit ready, and we’ll be moving around putting out any embers, but at this stage we can’t see anything like that,” she said.

Ms Agnew said the fire was burning at a similar distance to blazes earlier this month and described it as difficult to be facing the situation again so soon.

“We’re feeling a bit over it, to be honest. We were hoping it wouldn’t come to this,” she said.

Fires continue to burn across the state

Major fires in the areas of Longwood in central Victoria, Walwa in the north-east of the state, and in Mallacoota and the Wonnangatta Valley in the east are also burning.

There are still Watch and Act warnings in place for the Walwa and Wonnangatta Valley fires, which are not under control.

Emergency Management Commissioner Tim Wiebusch said while the fire conditions today were not as bad as January 9, when blazes engulfed 400,000 hectares of the state, there was still significant fire danger.

“We haven’t got the mix of damaging winds combining with these really hot conditions across Victoria,” he said.

“But that said, we still have extreme to high fire danger right across large parts of our state.”

He said these conditions would put pressure on the seven major fires currently burning across Victoria in the coming days.

Commissioner Wiebusch said 74 Canadian firefighters would also be deployed to some of these major fires from Thursday next week.

“That’s a really welcome extra support to bolster our crews and be able to rest some of our crews that have been going at it for over three weeks,” he said.

State swelters through hot day

Temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s are expected to be reached across much of Victoria on Saturday, with a total fire ban declared across the entire state.

The Wimmera and South West districts are most at risk, with hot, windy conditions pushing the fire danger in those areas to extreme.

A total fire ban will remain for the Northern Country, North Central, North East and East Gippsland fire districts on Sunday.

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Commissioner Wiebusch said the hot conditions would continue for the next week.

“The Bureau [of Meteorology] is telling us that this could be the longest duration heatwave that we’ve seen since 2009,” he said.

He said while the day temperatures would be high, the overnight temperatures would also remain around 20 degrees Celsius for many parts of the state.

“Those two things combined really put pressure on the human body,” he said.

He recommended people remain hydrated, go to the library or shopping centres to stay out of the heat, and remain safe if swimming at Victoria’s beaches, lakes and rivers.

The state is still recovering from the recent fires, which are now estimated to have destroyed more than 1,500 structures across Victoria.

Authorities said at least 434 homes have been destroyed by the fires and more than 35,000 heads of livestock killed.

For more information on the latest fire warnings for Victoria, visit the VicEmergency website.