Victoria fires as it happened: Property, livestock lost as winds push bushfire north toward Elmhurst

About 1000 firefighters and dozens of aircraft are still battling an uncontrolled bushfire burning around the Pyrenees Ranges in regional Victoria to Ballarat’s west.

The towns of Elmhurst and Amphitheatre on the Pyrenees Highway remain under threat as winds continue to push the fire north-east.

As of 7.45pm on Friday, the following fire alerts were active:

• Emergency warning – Leave immediately – active for Bayindeen, Chute, Elmhurst, Mount Lonarch and surrounds.
• Watch and act – Not safe to return – active for Main Lead, Middle Creek, Raglan and Waterloo.
• Watch and act – Not safe to return – active for Amphitheatre, Avoca, Crowlands, Elmhurst, Eversley, Glenlofty, Glenpatrick, Glenshee, Green Hill Creek, Landsborough, Nowhere Creek, Percydale and Warrenmang.
• Advice – Stay informed – active for Amherst, Amphitheatre, Avoca, Beaufort, Brewster, Bung Bong, Burnbank, Caralulup, Chute, Crowlands, Ercildoune, Eurambeen, Evansford, Frenchmans, Glenbrae, Glenlofty, Homebush, Lamplough, Landsborough, Langi Kal Kal, Lexton, Lillicur, Middle Creek, Mount Lonarch, Percydale, Raglan, Rathscar West, Riversdale, Rosyth, Stony Creek, Talbot, Tanwood, Trawalla, Warrenmang, Waterloo and Waubra.

Some towns may be mentioned twice because the borders of different alerts cut through their postcodes.

Residents of Beaufort are beginning to return and survey the damage after the Western Highway reopened this afternoon. Federal Emergency Services Minister Murray Watt told the ABC late this afternoon that five to 10 homes had been destroyed around the town of almost 2000 people, but fire crews are still assessing the damage and the number may change.

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Stay safe.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has just posted a message on social media revealing the Pyrenees blaze in western Victoria has burnt more than 14,000 hectares.

“Tonight, I’m thinking of everyone who can’t get home. And all of the incredible first responders who’ll spend the weekend working hard to keep everyone safe,” the premier wrote.

“Please take care. And please stay across the warnings”

The photo in Allan’s post is a view of the current fire from Pomonal – another town still recovering after a blaze in the Grampians razed dozens of homes on February 13.

Federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt has said the number homes destroyed near the western Victorian town of Beaufort could reach double digits.

Watt, speaking on ABC TV late on Friday afternoon, said Victoria’s emergency management commissioner Rick Nugent had briefed him at the State Control Centre.

Minister for Emergency Management Murray Watt in Canberra earlier this month.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“The latest reports are that we [have] probably seen somewhere between five and 10 homes destroyed in and around Beaufort. The damage estimates are still under way, so they are not final figures,” he said.

“It does not look the damage is quite as severe as what we saw a week or so ago in Pomonal we lost over 40 homes.”

Earlier on Friday, Victorian authorities confirmed homes had been destroyed in the Pyrenees fires, but didn’t provide further figures as fire crews were still to fully assess the damage. Still, the premier and CFA chief said they expected the number of properties lost would rise.

A burnt shed near Beaufort.Credit: Jason South

Watt, the federal minister, said the Commonwealth had not yet been called on for emergency support.

“Victoria has managed it themselves,” he said.

“But, you would have seen they’ve had around a thousand firefighters out, dozens of firetrucks, over 20 aircraft and that’s one of the factors that helped to manage these conditions so well.”

Watt said serious hot and dangerous weather could return to Victoria midway through next week.

Beaufort nurse Rebecca Simmonds and her family return to their property in Raglan after the bushfire swept through on Thursday.Credit: Jason South

Earlier this evening, Victoria’s volunteer fire and emergency service posted a video online of scorched farmland and scrub in the state’s west.

“This video was taken last night after crews put a fire out near Beaufort and stopped it from spreading into a nearby paddock,” the Country Fire Authority said on social media platform X.

Watch the video below:

A fresh emergency warning has been issued for the Pyrenees town of Elmhurst and surrounds as Beaufort residents begin to return home further south of the uncontrolled bushfire.

The updated alert, issued at 6.20pm, says the blaze in Victoria’s west is still travelling northeast. The warning has been issued for Bayindeen, Chute, Elmhurst, Mount Lonarch and surrounds.

Fire crews will try to strengthen property protection lines at Elmhurst tonight and tomorrow. Reports from the scene indicate the blaze is approaching 13,000 hectares in size.

Amphitheatre is still under threat, but part of the town is now under a lower watch and act warning.

Meanwhile, Beaufort locals that had to flee as fire approached the town yesterday afternoon can return to the town as the Western Highway has reopened. The town is still under and advice message as last night’s wind changes continues to push the blaze away.

The Age photographer Jason South has just sent in these photos from the fire front.

Firefighters can be seen battling flames mere metres away.

The head of Victoria’s forest fire agency says the bushfire near Beaufort has flared up this afternoon as it heads towards the town of Elmhurst.

FFMVic Chief Fire Officer Chris Hardman at Melbourne Airport earlier this year,

Chris Hardman, the chief fire officer at Forest Fire Management Victoria, told Nine News shortly before 4.30pm that crews were trying to stop the bushfire in the Mount Cole State Park from getting to the Pyrenees Highway.

This is how he responded when asked what areas were of greatest concern late this afternoon:

The fire is just south of Elmhurst and the Pyrenees Highway. We’ve got more than a thousand firefighters that are really working hard to stop that fire reaching the Pyrenees Highway near Elmhurst, and we’ve also got really strong aviation assets. So, we have got the large air tankers that are supporting onground firefighters, doing everything they can to slow the spread of those fires. But right now, the fire behaviour is picking up a little bit, and there is still significant challenges for firefighters on this fire.

About 1000 firefighters and dozens of aircraft are continuing to fight an uncontrolled fire spanning more than 11,000 hectares in Victoria’s west.

Watch some of the latest vision from the scene here:

The chief executive of the Pyrenees Shire, the local government area in the middle of a raging bushfire in Victoria’s west, says the blaze has traumatised locals.

Jim Nolan, speaking to 3AW earlier this afternoon from the Maryborough relief centre, said a briefing had been held for a few dozen evacuees in attendance.

Smoke plumes into the sky as a fire near Beaufort continues to burn on Friday morning.Credit: Facebook/Terri-Anne Tag Lewis

“The trauma that people have been through over the last 24 hours or so has been quite a concern,” he said. “And obviously, we’ve got a really active fire front still. And lots of people [have] been displaced during this process.”

Nolan said many had sought shelter with family and friends elsewhere in western Victoria, but those with nowhere to go had gone to relief centres set up in Maryborough, Ararat and Wendouree.

The chief executive said pet owners in Ballarat weren’t able to bring their animals inside the indoor relief centres. They instead choose to sleep in their cars, he said. “That seemed to work okay. I think people sort of realised it was short term and an emergency situation.”

From left: Beaufort residents Rebecca Brunner and her partner Tina Koeleman with their dog, Chief, at an evacuation centre last night.Credit: Eddie Jim

Nolan said he expected “serious consequences” to be revealed as the fire subsided and locals could return, adding a significant recovery effort would be needed. But, he emphasised the fire was still an active emergency.

He thanked nearby councils and emergency services for helping locals.

“A lot of people are doing the best they can,” Nolan said.

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.

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 that came under direct threat yesterday 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.