Falling trees damage houses and block roads in Melbourne’s north
Falling trees have damaged houses and wreaked havoc for motorists across Melbourne’s north, with Whittlesea SES still on the job dealing with a backlog of calls following Thursday’s carnage. See photos of the hardest hit areas.
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Whittlesea SES volunteers have worked into the afternoon to deal with a backlog of calls after extreme weather conditions swept across Victoria on Thursday.
The Whittlesea, Broadmeadows and Sunbury areas were the hardest hit in Melbourne’s north as falling trees damaged houses and wreaked havoc for motorists.
Extra volunteers travelled from Gisborne, Sunbury and Craigieburn to help the Whittlesea unit respond to more than 150 call-outs across the day.
Deputy controller Natasha Bradley told the Leader the majority of calls were for trees falling on homes and blocking driveways and streets.
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She said Mill Park and Epping were the worst areas hit and Plenty Rd was blocked by multiple falling branches.
“A few houses lost a dozen or so tiles, which we patched up or covered with a tarp, but none were damaged enough to require people to move out,” Ms Bradley said.
She said about a dozen jobs were still outstanding on Friday morning and crews would work into the afternoon.
Across Victoria the SES received 2100 call-outs, with additional resources deployed to badly affected parts of east Gippsland.
An advice message was issued for a bushfire at Black Forest Drive in Woodend about midday on Thursday as firefighters battled horrendous heat and wind gusts.
The message was downgraded by the evening.
Senior forecaster Kevin Parkyn said he hadn’t seen a day like it in his 30 years at the weather bureau.
“What an extraordinary weather day, I can’t remember a day like this in November,” he said.
“No part of the state was untouched by this hot air. It hit you right in the face.”
Gusts reached 95km/h at Melbourne Airport in the early afternoon, while Viewbank was hit by 87km/h winds about 3.30pm.
The Broadmeadows unit were deployed to 74 jobs for fallen trees and building damage, with some branches creating partial blockages on the major thoroughfares of Sydney Rd, Hume Highway and Bell St.
Deputy controller Shane Lapworth said volunteers were out until 11pm on Thursday cleaning up trees, fences, roof tiles, steel sheeting and other loose items that had blown away.
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Section leader and volunteer Jarrod Bell said Sunbury crews were called out to 10 jobs for trees blocking roads and driveways and falling on houses, with their main priority to keep roads open for firefighters and residents to get in and out.
“We worked pretty closely with them to make sure those main fire routes were open on such a high fire danger day so people can get out and fireys in,” he said.
“Our main concern was a tree falling onto a car or person.
“We also saw a couple of people across the state lose trampolines – they can become very dangerous projectiles so people need to make sure they’re secured.”
