Rainfall on way after bushfire warnings for East Gippsland towns
The SES has received more than 300 calls for help overnight as a deluge of rain brought relief from East Gippsland fires but the wet has brought several flood warnings.
Victoria
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Emergency crews have turned their attention from battling out-of-control bushfires in East Gippsland to preparing for damaging flash flooding in the same region on Wednesday.
With significant rainfall on Tuesday and Wednesday morning assisting fire crews tackling two blazes in Briagolong and Loch Sport, the focus quickly shifted to potential flooding with up to 60mm projected to fall today.
A severe weather warning for the state’s east is in place for flash flooding and there are several minor and moderate flooding alerts for rivers and catchment areas.
Fire crews worked tirelessly to slow the spread of both blazes from as early as 4am Tuesday before Gippsland locals were given a reprieve with the rainfall.
Hundreds of firefighters have now been granted permission to leave the fire zones as heavy rain continues to pour.
But now locals are on flash flooding alert, with Victorian Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes saying the situation “remains dynamic”.
“We have, in good news, downgraded emergency warnings for fire,” she said on Wednesday morning.
“Obviously we’ve had a lot of rain across the state and that has brought flood concerns and flood plain concerns and it has three current alerts out, predominantly, it related to rivers in the Eildon area.
“We’ve had more than 300 requests for assistance from the SES overnight.”
SES crews managed to rescue one man trapped in floodwaters near Alexandra overnight and most of the calls for help have originated from the Taggerty area.
Local CFA crews on the ground in East Gippsland say smoke will likely linger in the area as the rain extinguishes both blazes.
Christie Johnson, senior meteorologist from the Bureau of Meteorology, said the fire zones could expect some relief with significant rainfall expected overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday.
“For the Briagolong fire, 30 to 60mm for the rest of today (Tuesday) and possibly similar again (on Wednesday), a good drop there.
“Probably something similar around the Loch Sport fire, we’re looking at widespread heavy rain that will fall over the fire grounds as well, they won’t miss out.”
SES chief Tim Wiebusch said although the worst of the fire danger was over, the heavy rainfall expected could cause further headaches.
“With the heavy rainfall that is now occurring over the eastern parts of the state, particularly in the northeast and Gippsland, our focus now turns to the flood risk,” he said on Tuesday.
“(This is) both a riverine and flash flood risk.
“In Gippsland, we’re likely to see the onset of riverine flooding commencing sometime during Wednesday afternoon, through Thursday and into the weekend.”
Mr Wiebusch said there was an “increased risk” of debris from the bushfires ending up in nearby towns, if the predicted flash flooding occurs.
“There’s certainly an increased risk anytime we see large fire scars in the landscape followed by heavy rainfall,” he added.
“There is the risk of increased debris flow and also localised landslides, particularly in the steeper terrain across Gippsland.”
The attention shift comes after more than 700 firefighters battled three separate bushfires into Tuesday evening in a bid to prevent further property damage and loss.
On Tuesday morning, several emergency warnings were issued for Briagolong and surrounding areas as an out-of-control bushfire burnt over 17,500ha.
The warnings initially told residents and visitors to evacuate the area, before announcing it was “too late to leave” before noon on Tuesday.
Further south on Tuesday, Loch Sport locals along the 90 Mile Beach were holding their collective breaths as the fire threatened homes and holiday businesses in the coastal region.
Emergency warnings were also issued for the Loch Sport and Seacombe areas with residents also told it was eventually too late to leave.
Strong wind gusts heading toward the Loch Sport township fanned the fire toward the popular holiday destination, but rainfall on Tuesday afternoon slowed that spread.
Several bushfire affected areas in Gippsland have received more than 100mm of rain in a heavy downpour that has the region preparing for floods.
Valencia Creek recorded 90mm of rain by Wednesday morning while 110mm was recorded at Duffy Rd, Briagolong.
The Rawson region near Erica, which had a blaze erupt on Sunday that lasted until Tuesday afternoon, received 111mm of rain which Erica CFA captain Russell Wright said “quelled” the fire.
“We’ve had a good drenching which has quelled activity on the fire ground which has been listed as contained,” he said.
“This is great news on the back of all the work our crews have done”.
The Rawson blaze got as far as Walhalla Rd, which reopened on Wednesday morning, leaving the township untouched.
Since Monday, the SES responded to 528 calls for help with the busiest areas being in Frankston, Lilydale and Emerald in Melbourne’s east.
A moderate flood warning has been issued for several suburbs in Melbourne’s east from Coldstream to Warrandyte, including Lilydale, Yarra Glen, and Seville, with the Yarra River expected to reach 4.6m.
Relief as rain moves through region
Relief is on the way for raging fires in the state’s southeast as significant rainfall is forecast to move through overnight.
It comes after strong winds fanned an out-of-control bushfire in Briagolong to more than triple its size.
Residents in parts of East Gippsland were told on Tuesday morning it was too late to leave as the blaze threatened homes and lives.
Two separate “take shelter” warnings were issued early on Tuesday, one covering the area around Briagolong and another for Seacombe and Loch Sport.
Residents in Briagolong, Cobbannah, Culloden, Moornapa and Woolenook were told to take shelter indoors as it was too late to leave.
The alert urged them to “act immediately to survive”.
The alert was initially issued for Briagolong North but expanded about 8am Tuesday.
By 9.30am, the blaze had grown from 5000ha to 17,000ha and moved towards Munro and Fernbank.
Valencia CFA posted on its Facebook page that the fire would “continue to impact private property in the Stockdale area between HVP pine plantations”.
“Local crews are on the ground protecting assets.
“We won’t get any rain until the early evening earliest so stay alert and enact your bushfire plans.
“Fire agencies will be on high alert for most of (Wednesday) … the strategy is to save as many assets as possible and keep critical infrastructure operating”.
But on Tuesday afternoon senior meteorologist from the Bureau of Meteorology Christie Johnson said rainfall through Tuesday evening and Wednesday would bring some relief to the fire zones.
“There’s a good (chance) that we will see pretty good rainfall over the fire ground,” she said.
“For the Briagolong fire, 30 to 60mm for the rest of today (and) possibly similar again tomorrow, so a good drop there.
“Probably something similar around the Loch Sport fire.
“We’re looking at widespread heavy rain that will fall over the fire grounds as well — they won’t miss out.
“Tomorrow (Wednesday) we will see a low pressure system start to develop over the east of the state and that will continue the heavy rainfall and strong wind story across the eastern part of the state.”
Ms Johnson said strong winds would continue over the fire zones in East Gippsland on Wednesday.
“We are still expecting damaging wind gusts to be on the cards, so there is that potential for gusts up to 90km/h or even a little bit higher,” she added.
CFA chief officer Jason Heffernan told media on Tuesday that crews at Rawson had made “really good progress” since Sunday.
However, he said private burns in East Gippsland had largely contributed to the blazes, particularly the fire at Loch Sport.
Mr Heffernan also said there were no further reports of property loss and no reports of any injuries or deaths.
“We’ve had some reports, particularly on the Sunday, of numerous private burns that reignited which saw firefighters respond to, as of yesterday, some 220 fires across the East Gippsland area,” he said.
“I’d like to point out that there’s no maliciousness in this.
“These are people who are preparing their properties for the summer season.
“In respect with the Briagolong fire, that fire is still under formal investigation, so I’m not going to speculate on the cause of that one.”
Mr Heffernan said the worst of the fire danger appeared to be over as emergency crews turned their attention to flooding.
“As we’ve heard, that frontal system is making its way across the state which is bringing absolute welcome rain to our fire grounds and will bring to an end what has been a very challenging (three days of) fire conditions in the state,” he added.
“Our crews are reporting some precipitation and rainfall across that fire ground (in Briagolong), we will now start to see some of the easing of the warnings that are in place for that fire.
“Similarly, in Loch Sport, again we’re starting to see some rain on that fire ground and we’ll also see the easing of fire conditions there.
“It’s probably more appropriate that we start to turn our minds from fire to the flooding and rain and storm situation.”
Mr Heffernan said the township of Loch Sport would likely be saved as further rain continued to slow the fire activity.
“I am very confident that the firefighters are doing everything they can to stop the progress and contain that fire, they are very much going to be assisted by the rainfall,” he added.
“The wetter conditions, the cooler conditions, the rapid increases in the relative humidity will certainly help firefighters in containing that fire this afternoon, not only in Loch Sport but also in Briagolong.”
Statford residents told to leave immediately
Locals in Stratford were told to leave on Tuesday as the fire continued to head south. The updated emergency warning, issued just before 10am, called on the almost 3000 Stratford residents to flee the town and head to one of the emergency relief centres in Lucknow or Sale.
A relief centre is open at the Gippsland Regional Sporting Complex at 116 Cabins Rd in Sale.
Further south on Tuesday, locals and visitors in Loch Sport and Seacombe were also told it was too late to leave as a bushfire edged towards the towns.
“Firefighters have been unable to stop the fire and it has now crossed Longford-Loch Sport Rd and is moving towards the southeast,” the alert said.
“If you have not already left, the time to safely evacuate has now passed. Take shelter indoors immediately. It is now too dangerous to leave.”
A separate emergency warning to evacuate immediately was issued about 6am Tuesday for those in Stockdale, Iguana Creek and Glenaladale.
At least one home has been lost in the blazes but locals can expect a reprieve with heavy rain forecast to hit East Gippsland late on Tuesday and into Wednesday.
‘A lot of work ahead of us’
Erica and District Brigade captain Russell Wright demanded people avoid private burn-offs as CFA crews battled the fires.
CFA units had been tackling the blaze at Knotts Siding Rd, Rawson, since Sunday morning, while more than 20 units had been called to a 161ha blaze south of the town.
Advice messages were issued for Erica, Rawson and Walhalla for both fires and floods for Wednesday.
While the Rawson fires are the “quieter of the fires happening in Gippsland” Mr Wright said now was not the time to start private burn-offs, broadcasting live from the Erica & District Brigade Facebook page on Tuesday morning.
CFA crews were released from the Rawson control area by Tuesday afternoon, with the strike team that was there set to be redeployed to Maffra.
Mr Wright said the fire was still “moving about” despite heavy rainfall.
“We still have a lot of work ahead of us,” he said.
“There’s still road closures and hazard tree assessments to be done to make things safe for people to return.
“Even though we’ve got a lot of heavy rain at the moment this is still an active fire ground”.
“If you are planning to do a burn-off in the next few days, please don’t. We have enough fire activity going on in the area as it is without people adding to it with little burn offs in their backyards.
“Our crews are stretched to the max, we’re really tired and as I said yesterday we’d appreciate it if you kept calls to your local brigades to an absolute minimum they’re really busy and overstretched”.
Mr Wright also thanked the community and volunteers who have “worked really hard” since the blaze erupted at the weekend.
V/Line services suspended
All V/Line rail services between Traralgon and Bairnsdale were suspended on Tuesday until further notice.
Replacement buses were not operating between the two major towns either as the fire crept closer to the Princes Highway.
Local Steve Hompot, speaking from the roof of the 90 Mile Holiday Retreat as he watched the situation unfold, said winds had eased and rain had begun to fall but the threat was far from over.
Mr Hompot also said the fire began burning behind the Loch Sport Golf Club, then headed west before turning south east again with the town in its sights.
“The wind has died down a fair bit in the last 30 minutes (since noon),” he said.
“There’s been a few drops of rain but it seems to have set in now which makes things a little better.
“The rain is steady so I’m very happy to see that.”
Premier says fire season has come early
Jacinta Allan, who received an update from Emergency Services Commissioner Rick Nugent on Tuesday morning, said it had been a “challenging night” in Gippsland, with the blaze doubling in size.
“The fire season has come and it’s come early,” she said.
“It has been a challenging night overnight in Gippsland, particularly into East Gippsland where there was some wind pick-up.”
“The weather change has seen the fire … double in size because the way the wind picked up, and the fire was crowning ahead of itself.”
The Premier said she had not received an update about the loss of assets.
“We’ll be having further updates during the day because teams, the Commissioner Emergency Management Commissioner, and advising teams are starting to get in there this morning to do an assessment of asset loss,” she said.
Loch Sport Caravan Park owner Raymond Johnson said the fire was heading toward his township as he hoped for a wind change and rain to ease conditions.
Mr Johnson said Loch Sport had lost power and aerial crews were tackling the fire from above.
“The wind is howling, the fire is sort of coming into town if the wind doesn’t change,” he told the Herald Sun on Tuesday morning.
“Everyone has been evacuated from our park, they opened the hotel at around 4am for people to gather there like the elderly.
“There’s been a couple of sleepless nights now, we got evacuated at 4am.”
When asked if he expects the fire to impact the town, Mr Johnson said: “I reckon there’s a fair chance if this wind doesn’t die down”.
“We’ve evacuated everyone, the park shut up, fire suppression is in place.
“The people here are as safe as they can be, we’re at the boat ramp car park, they’ve got a fire truck with us all, there’s trucks in the top end of the caravan park, too.
“(We) definitely need a change in wind and need the rain … but we’ll wait and see.”
Briagolong General Store owner Sandra said everyone in town was waiting patiently to see how conditions would evolve.
She said it appeared the fire was moving away from the township but there were many who were unsure whether to stay or evacuate.
“We’re doing OK, people are just watching and waiting, some have left and some have stayed,” she said.
“There are a lot of people not sure what to do.
“The school is shut and a lot of people are not going to work, it was pretty scary at about 4am this morning when all the trucks were around.”
The Briagolong Primary School also confirmed it would close its doors on Tuesday.
“Confirming that due to the Emergency Warnings in the area that School will be closed today,” the statement said.
“Please stay safe and I hope to see you all back at school soon.
“If you do require anything, please let me know as I am on-site. Food packages etc can be prepared if needed for you or members of the community.”
Campers told to leave
On Monday afternoon, fire crews battled several out-of-control bushfires in the East Gippsland region as a wind shift changed conditions.
The CFA confirmed that one house was lost in the Briagolong region.
Briagolong is home to about 1000 people and is 270km east of Melbourne.
The CFA told communities in Cobbannah, Glenaladale and Moornapa to “prepare to evacuate” about 9pm Sunday as bushfires raged through the region.
In an update just after 2pm, Emergency Management Victoria reported that the wind change had arrived, pushing the flames northeast.
Any campers still in the area were reminded to leave immediately.
A total of 500 firefighters were battling the flames at the four fire zones, with 100 appliances from the CFA and Forest Fire Management Victoria.
Strong winds fanned the flames which were scorching bushland in an area popular with campers and hikers.
Earlier, an emergency order was issued to immediately evacuate Briagolong, Culloden, Moornapa and surrounds.
Campers in bushland and some residents of the Briagolong region had fled by early afternoon and were heading south to Sale or Maffra.
The area is well known for its Blue Pool waterhole and gorge which is in the evacuation zone.
The latest fires are burning after two days of near 30C temperatures and high winds in the area.
And the latest emergency comes after a report last month by Forest Fire Management Victoria and the Country Fire Authority found that forest fuel levels were at alarming levels across much of central, south and west Gippsland.
The joint report identified an 84 per cent residual bushfire risk for the Latrobe district, well above the Gippsland target of 71 per cent.
An out-of-control grass fire was also reported near Duncans Rd, Werribee South.
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