By Sherryn Groch and Cassandra Morgan
The fire started with a lightning strike. But by the time it was roaring up to the town of Dimboola in Victoria’s north-west on Monday night, it had created its own storm, throwing down spears of lightning as it razed tens of thousands of hectares in just hours.
Local firefighter Ross Johns had seen this kind of monster in Dimboola before – a fire big enough to generate its own weather – and, like that day in 1981, this fire was burning right up to the main street of town.
“It came in fast and furious out of the desert, virtually the same path it had [30]-odd years ago,” said Johns, one of many who stayed behind to defend Dimboola after it was evacuated.
“But just at that last minute, the wind changed and died down. It saved the town.”
By Tuesday morning, Dimboola was still standing, though a beloved wedding venue and two farmhouses had been destroyed. Almost all of the town’s 1635 residents were safely evacuated, local community groups say.
But the Little Desert National Park blaze continues to burn out of control near the South Australian border. It has ripped through more than 63,000 hectares in just 24 hours – almost as much as the Grampians fire engulfed in three weeks earlier this year.
Firefighters say they are grateful no lives have been lost but are now bracing for another weeks-long battle in the already ravaged Grampians National Park, with two new blazes in its north and south sparked by Monday’s scorching temperatures expected to grow and join to become a mammoth “campaign” fire.
Dimboola local Bruce Donnelly recalled the horrifying moment flames came out of the night and jumped one side of the river, tearing along Dimboola’s golf course and almost engulfing its clubhouse.
“The smoke was very heavy,” Donnelly said. “We could hear the thunder rumbling through Little Desert.
“But the CFA and locals banded together and did an amazing job [beating it back].”
Kaylene Pietsch runs a hair salon in the town’s main strip and her firefighter husband was working all night alongside Johns and others. “There was a truck on every corner,” she said.
At least four locals took shelter at Pietsch’s house as the flames roared up, and the local caravan parks in the popular tourism spot were packed after the Australia Day long weekend.
“We only got an hour to evacuate, that’s how fast it was moving,” Pietsch said.
From her farm, across the plains, she saw the dry lightning strike ignite the fire about 1pm. “The huge smoke plume just shot up,” she said.
The view from the Horsham Aerodrome on Monday night as a fire near Dimboola turns the sky orange.Credit: Kath Papst/Facebook
Johns said that fire quickly became a freight train, blown along first by the hot, northerly wind of up to 70km/h that had driven temperatures above 40 degrees. Then, when the sudden cool change hit that evening, the fire shifted again, this time south – and straight for Dimboola.
“It just roared across the desert. We’d been on the fire’s eastern flank, and suddenly that flank became the front. We were so lucky that wind died off when it did.”
Some residents fleeing Dimboola, as well as the neighbouring hamlet of Wail stopped to help evacuate elderly neighbours or animals left behind by friends.
About 200 turned out to a relief centre at Horsham overnight. However, an aged care facility and Dimboola hospital were unable to be fully evacuated, Emergency Management Commissioner Rick Nugent said.
Still, the danger isn’t completely over, with more hot days looming next week. “This fire is going to be dangerous for weeks to come,” said Johns.
Popular wedding venue The Little Desert Nature Lodge was destroyed in the blaze, losing its main building and several cabins.
“We are relieved to confirm that all people and animals are safe,” the lodge’s camp director, Moshe Kahn, said Tuesday.
Kate Kennedy, the daughter of lodge founder Whimpey, earlier told ABC that the eco-friendly accommodation had hosted hundreds of school groups and weddings for almost 50 years.
“We didn’t ever expect [the fire] to escalate the way it did,” she said.
Ross Johns was himself married at the lodge “many years ago”. “It’s a tragedy,” he said.
He called for better fire planning in the area and more cool Indigenous burns, which ripple through the forest in a patchwork, giving wildlife time to escape.
“Those animals are all going to be gone after a fire like this,” he sighed.
“This country has a history of burning, but [the government] isn’t managing the national parks properly. The Aboriginal [community] know how to reduce the litter and the fuel load in the forests, the locals know how to help each other.”
Parts of Dimboola were still subject to a watch and act alert to monitor changing conditions on Tuesday afternoon, while the threat was reduced for some residents in other parts of the town. It was safe for those residents to return home, along with residents of Wail, authorities said.
About 80 fires started on public land and in national parks and up to 70 on private land on Monday amid scorching conditions and about 800,000 lightning strikes across the state.
Of the lightning strikes, about 10,000 reached the ground.
A bushfire that started in the Little Desert National Park in Victoria’s far-west spread rapidly on Monday.Credit: Bruce Donnelly/Facebook
Country Fire Authority Chief Officer Jason Heffernan said the Little Desert fire “generated its own fire thunderstorm, which then saw further lightning created by that event”.
He condemned the theft of a volunteer firefighter’s car from Werneth Fire Station, 75 kilometres west of Geelong, on Monday afternoon, saying: “I can’t think of anything worse, or a lower act.”
Watch-and-act alerts were also in place at parts of the Grampians National Park and surrounds on Tuesday, with Halls Gap and Wartook once again in danger, according to fire crews. Thick smoke triggered air quality warnings on Tuesday evening.
Communities on the western side of the fire could come under pressure on Saturday with a wind change, he said.
The Bureau of Meteorology was forecasting temperatures nudging 40 degrees in Victoria’s north and west on the weekend, and falling just shy of 40 degrees in the south.
Into next week, 40-degree temperatures are possible across much of the state.
With Lachlan Abbott
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