Victoria swelters as heatwave puts firefighters on edge

Victoria is set to swelter as a three-day heatwave intensifies, putting firefighters further on edge after a small bushfire briefly triggered an evacuation warning in central Victoria on Thursday.

The Bureau of Meteorology forecasts the temperature in the city will hit 34 degrees on Friday. Across the state, the mercury could reach 10 degrees above average.

Victoria’s south-west stretching into the Wimmera, along with parts of Melbourne, could feel the highest temperatures, senior meteorologist Helen Reid said.

The mercury is expected to reach the high 30s in much of the Mallee, Northern Country and North Central regions on Friday.

Reid said maximums in Gippsland could rise to 14 degrees above the region’s average at the weekend, while Melbourne is expected to reach 36 degrees on Saturday.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, a watch-and-act alert advising residents of Creswick, north of Ballarat, to “prepare to evacuate” was issued shortly before 2pm when a blaze broke out around a nearby plantation.

The fire crossed the town’s rail line and was heading towards the Midland Highway, but the alert was downgraded to an advice message about 3pm.

In Melbourne, 30 firefighters and one water-bombing aircraft responded to a grass fire in Westmeadows shortly after 2pm. The blaze engulfed two sheds, but was brought under control before 3pm.

Country Fire Authority chief executive Jason Heffernan said the forecast hot temperatures and a drop in humidity could be key drivers for fires to develop rapidly.

“What will be a little bit unique and a little bit different from last week, however, is that winds will be a lot less than what we saw last weekend,” he said.

Smoke from the Gellibrand fire in the Otway Ranges last Saturday afternoon.Credit: Nine

“So for the fire conditions, it will mean that available fuels – particularly grassfire fuels – will be what we call ‘preheated’, and will remain available to fire over the next couple of days.

“I do anticipate that fires will start as a result of that; however, as long as the winds don’t mix down and increase, firefighters should be able to get on top of fires relatively quickly.”

The fire danger on Friday is rated as high in Victoria’s north-west, west and south-west.

Last week, a bushfire burnt more than 700 hectares at Chapple Vale, a community about 60 kilometres north-west of Apollo Bay, while homes were destroyed in a separate fire that razed more than 1250 hectares at Kadnook, near the South Australian border.

“We haven’t got the rain in spring that potentially the bureau was predicting, so again, those [western] areas still remain in some cases ... the driest on record, so we’ll go into the summer season still holding that part of the state as a concern,” Heffernan said.

Firefighters hoped for storms and rain over the next couple of days but those may not eventuate, Heffernan said.

“In which case, the next three days of weather will rapidly bring us ever closer to the peak fire conditions as we lead into summer,” he said.

Victoria Police said they would bolster the number of officers they have on the ground at beaches, parks and transport hubs from Thursday.

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