Fire danger in Yarra Ranges: CFA says have fire plans ready
Do you have a fire plan in place? People in the outer eastern suburbs are being encouraged to vigilant ahead of the damaging winds and scorching temperatures forecast for tomorrow.
Outer East
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People in the outer east are being urged to have their fire plans ready and to know where their family members are going to be ahead of tomorrow’s extreme conditions.
With damaging winds and scorching temperatures expected across the state, the CFA is encouraging people in the Yarra Ranges, Knox, Manningham and Maroondah to remain vigilant throughout the day.
CFA District 13 operations manager David Rankin said people should ensure they have their fire plans in place, know where their families are, and keep watch for any alerts of fires.
Mr Rankin said he expected a Total Fire Ban to soon be declared for across the state tomorrow, so people should immediately report any sign of fire.
To prepare for the fire-threat, the CFA will have District 13’s incident control centre in Ferntree Gully manned from 10am, as well its district command centre and regional control centre in Chirnside Park.
“They will be manned until we decide the risk has been reduced,” Mr Rankin said.
He said the fire risk across the outer eastern suburbs would be on the lower side of the ’very high’ rating tomorrow.
âš ï¸A severe weather warning for damaging winds has been issued for THURSDAY, associated with a cold front moving across the state. Stay up to date with warnings here https://t.co/GudhjK7gNi pic.twitter.com/MJGwhho8HD
— Bureau of Meteorology, Victoria (@BOM_Vic) November 20, 2019
“It will be just on the cusp in regards to reaching triggering points,” he said.
Mr Rankin said the area was in a slightly better position than other parts of the state because of the rainfall it had received in the past few months.
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But Mr Rankin said, like in much of the country, there was underlying dryness throughout the area’s forests, with no moisture in the soil deep below the surface.
“That could obviously cause or carry fire given the conditions we’re facing tomorrow,” he said.
The Bureau of Meteorology is expecting the temperature in Melbourne to reach 39C degrees — 16 degrees higher than Melbourne’s November average — and has issued a severe weather warning for damaging winds
Stay up to date with any fires in Victoria at emergency.vic.gov.au