Cool change eases bushfire threat in Victoria’s east
The threat from fires burning out of control in Victoria’s east has eased after four major blazes razed tens of thousands of hectares.
VIC News
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Cooler weather has eased Victoria’s bushfire threat but more than 20 blazes continue burning out of control, with 11 structures lost and tens of thousands of hectares razed in the state’s east.
Watch and acts remain in place for the Bunyip State Park fire, while another has been issued for a blaze at Avenel.
That fire is burning northeast towards Avenel Rd fanned by high winds and properties along Tarcombe Rd, from Booroola Homestead to Upton Road, could be affected.
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For the most up-to-date fire information, go to emergency.vic.gov.au
People at Avenel and Tarcombe are urged to stay close to a building in which they can shelter.
Around the Bunyip State Park, the communities of Bunyip North, Cornucopia, Garfield North, Gembrook, Labertouche, Tonimbuk, Beenak, Gembrook and Whites Corner remain under two watch and acts as firefighters work to control the blaze and clear hazardous trees.
Meanwhile, other fires at Dargo, Licola and Yinnar South have been downgraded to advice messages.
It comes after a cool change moving east overnight helped crews establish containment lines and suppress fire activity following thunderstorms and lightning yesterday.
The Dargo bushfire had been threatening homes and lives as it burnt southeast towards the town yesterday afternoon, with embers falling over Crooked River Valley.
But the emergency warning was later downgraded to a watch and act and this morning to an advice message.
A State Control Centre spokeswoman this morning said the fire complex, where there are two blazes, has burnt more than 18,000ha.
The Bunyip fire has destroyed at least nine structures but that number could rise as assessment teams move through the area.
Two structures have also been confirmed lost in the Yinnar South blaze, who has spread over more than 1800ha as crews focus on asset protection.
More than 2000 firefighters are battling 24 “going” fires across Victoria, helped by aircraft from NSW.
Cooler weather is expected to continue over the coming days but authorities feared the fire situation could be made worse by winds picking up throughout the day.
#vicfires Australia 🇦🇺 #wildfires
— Copernicus EU (@CopernicusEU) March 4, 2019
Three different #Sentinel🇪🇺🛰 views of the same disaster
1/3 #Sentinel2 view from today pic.twitter.com/saAbXdHZHG
KEY NUMBERS:
* 2900+ grass and bushfires this summer
* 45,000+ hectares burnt in the Bunyip, Licola, Dargo and Yinnar South fires
* 2000+ firefighters battling the four blazes
* 330 community warnings issued
* 75 emergency warnings issued
* 1200 people at relief centres
Emergency Services Lisa Neville says about 140 homes have been saved from fire “burning almost to the door”.
“I know that there are seven families who have lost homes and are suffering,” the minister earlier said of the fire emergency.
“We will be with those families in coming days, weeks and months.”
It came as Premier Daniel Andrews dismissed an opposition attack on why more control burning had not been done around the Bunyip State Park and across the state.
SHATTERED VICTIMS PICK UP THE PIECES
Battler farming communities in Victoria’s east are picking up the pieces after a raging inferno destroyed homes and livelihoods in just moments, leaving some with only the clothes on their back.
In one of the most destructive fires in a decade, residents of the hamlet of Tonimbuk were fearing the worst amid reports the entire region had been “wiped off the map” by the Bunyip State Park blaze.
Bunyip North man Rex Newton has nothing but the clothes on his back, a spare pair of jeans and his wallet after losing his home of 40 years. The wildlife carer and hobby bird breeder fled “as soon as the fire hit the end of the house”.
He returned on Monday to find only twisted steel remained. Part of his roof had melted and run down the concrete path.
“I thought it would be s--- and, yeah, it’s s---,” Mr Newton said. “There’s 40 years of hard slog gone.”
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More than 65 of Mr Newton’s birds that included ducks, turkeys, canaries and cockatoos, were killed. His two dogs and one cat were spared, although the feline’s whiskers were scorched.
Authorities will be on high alert today with several major fires continuing to pose a threat.
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The response to the Bunyip fire has prompted criticism from some locals.
Victims took aim at Parks Victoria for what they said had been a failure to act on the Black Saturday royal commission recommendations to increase controlled burns.
And the Country Fire Authority also faced criticism for “hanging back” rather than helping locals who were desperate to save their properties.
Mr Newton said several CFA crews failed to help him defend his home after they deemed it too dangerous.
“There wasn’t a water drop here in the whole area, not one,” he said.
“You watched (water bombers) go over but nobody came here.”
Winemaker Andrew Clarke, of Jinks Creek, fled the fire with his family.
They experienced the heartbreak of watching on television as their wine bar, gallery and accommodation burned down.
“It is my life’s work … it is all gone,” Mr Clarke said.
“I don’t have any way of earning any money. I don’t know what to do. I have to support my family, so I’m stuffed, pretty much.”
He said bushfire risk mitigation work by Parks Victoria in the area could have made a difference.
“The ferocity of that fire wouldn’t have been as much if they had been doing what they are meant to do,” he said.
Tonimbuk resident Karen, who also lost her home, agreed with that criticism. “No one’s done anything out there for years,” she said.
She said locals had been notified there would be fuel reduction burns — the notice is still on her fridge — but these had never occurred.
But the premier said the Bunyip State Forest blazes were so intense and fierce that they had jumped the fire breaks.
“There has been extensive backburning around the Bunyip State Forest, were there were conditions to make it safe to do so,” Mr Andrews said.
“Part of the extraordinarily dry conditions we are having means it is incredible difficult to do that backburning.
“It is not safe to back burn when we have extreme heat and extremely dry conditions.”
A DELWP annual report showed the amount of land treated through “planned burning and other treatments” progressively dropped from 234,614 hectares in 2014-15 to 64,978 hectares in 2017-18.
But Mr Andrews cited a 2015 controlled burn in Lancefield that destroyed homes after it broke containment lines.
Mr Andrews said those homes were lost “by the government in effect and its agency putting fire into that landscape”.
“If you’ve got significant fuel load, if you’ve got literally no moisture whatsoever in that landscape, if you’ve got wind conditions, temperature conditions, all of those either separately or jointly are a recipe for disaster if you push ahead blindly,” he said.
“The advice from the fire services, from the MFB, from the Inspector General of Emergency Management, the Lancefield community I dare say and indeed from those who are called upon to conduct this controlled burning is it can be only be done when it is safe to do so.”
The premier said his government would support those who had lost everything through grant programs and added pressure on insurance companies to deal with fire claims swiftly.
Mr Andrews also denied that new CFA protocols, enacted after Black Saturday, meant that firefighters could no longer defend homes or properties.
“There are no change to protocols other than those designed coming from terrible past experience and designed to keep people safe. Our firefighters did an outstanding job,” he said.
“Emotions are running high and there are some people who literally have lost everything — I not only feel for them but give them the commitment that if that we will review this and see if there are any other learnings.”
WHERE WAS THE HELP THIS TIME?
When Black Saturday brought flames to the front of Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight’s property at Tonimbuk a decade ago, Country Fire Authority firefighters were there to help.
But at the weekend, when the Bunyip blaze burnt everything but his house, they were nowhere to be seen.
He and sons Jack, 22, and Elliott, 19, were left to defend the family’s home of 24 years, 90km from Melbourne.
“We fought this fire for three days on our own,” Knight said.
Lightning started the fire in the Bunyip State Park, north of Knight’s house.
He and his sons spent Friday setting up their firefighting pumps and sprinklers.
“The wind was coming from all directions. We couldn’t get a fix on it, and I’ve actually got a broken back,” Knight said.
“I had my two sons with me and I thought ‘I can’t endanger them’. So our plan was we’ll evacuate.”
His wife Sophy and 15-year-old daughter Daisy had begged him to get out.
Knight and his sons headed to nearby Bunyip, where they spent an anxious Saturday night, hoping that the overhead sprinklers and fire hose they had left running would save their timber home.
The fire burned all around the Knight house, destroying fencing, sheds, horse boxes, and trailers.
“We got in there and there were spotfires everywhere,” Knight said.
Jinks Creek Winery, on the border of Bunyip State Park, was also wiped out in the blaze.
And the fire came within metres of Amanda Porter and Damien Cartwright’s Forest View Thoroughbreds property in Bunyip North.
Ms Porter said lightning started the fire behind their property on Friday, marking the start of a three-day battle to save their home.
On Sunday night Mr Cartwright stood guard at the front fence with a bucket and shovel and threw tubs of water on the encroaching flames. After sleeping in three-hour shifts, the relieved couple discovered the fire had gone no further.
Ms Porter said the stress had taken its toll.
“I was physically sick yesterday,” she said. “I thought it was the smoke but it’s just a massive knot in your stomach.
“The firebombing and the firefighters are amazing. I can’t praise for those guys enough.”
Neighbour Maya Norlyng laughed yesterday morning when she collected singed mail from her letterbox, joking: “I hope it’s a bill.”
A catalogue was untouched, but tickets to a Bryan Adams concert — a gift for her husband, Peter — were burnt at one end.
“I’ll have to send it to them and ask if they’ll still work if they are burnt.”
The CFA said it worked with local communities throughout the year, but particularly in the lead up to bushfire season.
“Unfortunately we can’t have a fire truck on everyone’s doorstep and we prioritise accordingly,” a spokesperson said.
“Communities in fire-affected areas are sent relevant messaging, including emergency alerts.
“In the lead up to the current heatwave we issued several warnings to the community and reminded people to stay informed and enact their fire plan when necessary.”
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