By Ashleigh McMillan
State emergency authorities are warning that Victoria will face its worst fire danger day in four years next week, as firefighters on Saturday battled an out-of-control blaze burning towards communities in western Victoria.
The large bushfire about 50 kilometres north-west of Ballarat was still threatening more than 20 communities late Saturday, forcing residents to flee.
A burnt property near Beaufort on Saturday.Credit: Luis Ascui
Residents of Amphitheatre were urged just after 3pm to leave their homes immediately “before conditions become too dangerous”, as the fire moved north-east towards the town.
However, the threat at Amphitheatre had eased by Saturday evening, with a Watch and Act alert in place.
About 16,000 hectares of land have already burned and at least three homes destroyed by the blaze.
Premier Jacinta Allan toured the fire-affected region by helicopter on Saturday and said it was emotional seeing the “devastation” in the landscape, where many intact homes were surrounded by blackened ground.
She said it was possible fire authorities would find more destroyed homes as initial impact assessments continued.
Jacinta Allan flew over the bushfire north of Beaufort on Saturday with CFA chief officer Jason Heffernan and Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes.Credit: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling
Temperatures are expected to rise to 40 degrees across the state on Wednesday, with strong winds likely to move across the existing fire ground between the towns of Beaufort and Elmhurst.
“Wednesday into Thursday is going to be a very dangerous and difficult day across Victoria with that combination of extreme heat, high winds and dry lightning moving throughout the state,” Allan said.
Country Fire Authority chief officer Jason Heffernan called the early weather forecasts “alarming and concerning”.
He expects six different regions across Victoria will be under a total fire ban by Wednesday, including the Mallee, the Wimmera and the central region, which includes Melbourne.
The Beaufort fire would not be put out in the next five days due to its size, Heffernan said, so firefighters had focused on building containment lines in the areas of most concern to the south and east of the blaze.
“[Wednesday] could quite potentially be the worst fire day Victoria has seen in four years,” Heffernan said, referencing the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires that tore through the state’s east and burnt more than 1.5 million hectares of land.
“It is not beyond the realm of possibility that communities around this fire yet again have to be on alert.”
Heffernan urged all Victorians who lived near bushland to have a fire plan in place before Wednesday, prepare their properties, and stay alert to warnings from emergency services.
Clothes still hang on the line in bushfire-hit areas near Beaufort.Credit: Luis Ascui
Residents who had fled 17 towns and hamlets – including Raglan on the southern edge of the fire, and Avoca around 30 kilometres north-west of the blaze – were still being told on Saturday it was not yet safe to return to the area.
The Pyrenees Highway between Amphitheatre and Ararat was still closed as firefighters focused overnight on stopping the blaze from jumping the highway and entering the Pyrenees State Forest.
“The spread of the fire is quite low at the moment and the winds are quite low today,” Ballarat incident controller Jon Rofe said on Saturday afternoon.
“It’s not progressing across the landscape at a fast speed … [giving] ground crews that opportunity to be quite aggressive and control those spot fires that may be occurring.
Smoke from the fire north of Beaufort, photographed from a helicopter on Saturday. Credit: NCA Newswire
“If there are any sort of breakaways from this current fire, which we’re hoping there’s not, but depending on what the weather does – people need to be prepared to act prior to that, and also respond appropriately for their own safety and … their families.”
About 20 firefighting aircraft are being used to bring the bushfire under control. Fixed-wing aircraft could be used to drop containment lines of retardant ahead of Wednesday.
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