By Ashleigh McMillan and Alexander Darling
Residents in Melbourne’s outer east are reflecting on what has to change, after a bushfire destroyed one home and damaged two others early on Sunday.
The Montrose bushfire began on land near Dr Ken Leversha Reserve on Saturday afternoon, before a wind change doubled it in size late that evening.
One home was lost and two others were damaged in the blaze.Credit: Nine News
Rain helped about 160 firefighters control the 40-hectare blaze on Sunday morning, and residents were able to return home in the afternoon.
As of Sunday afternoon, the cause of the blaze was not known. However, at a public meeting police said they were investigating four youths seen in the area where the fire started.
Locals were asked to check their CCTV and contact police if they found any suspicious behaviour.
Firefighters were greeted with applause at the meeting.
Chelsea Cooper, president of the Montrose Township Group, said it became clear at the meeting how few residents had bushfire plans.
The fire at Dr Ken Leversha Reserve on Saturday before a wind change late in the evening pushed it north.Credit: VicEmergency
“There were probably upwards of 180 people there – standing room only. At one stage a representative from the Montrose fire brigade asked for a show of hands who had a fire plan. I would say I could count them on one hand,” she said.
“It’s been a long time since Black Saturday [the 2009 bushfires] – people haven’t considered that [a threat].”
Cooper said she spoke with a resident of Crestview Close, opposite the home destroyed by the fire.
“They were there when [the fire] happened, and what she was saying is, ‘We live on a residential street’. It’s kind of like ‘that’s not going to happen to us’. There are quite a few homes that butt up against this reserve in particular, so I think that people now realise they are at risk as well.”
Cooper said the fire caught people off guard as many of them were sleeping, and the meeting discussed whether Montrose should return to having a public alarm system for emergencies in the middle of the night.
Almost all present at the meeting expressed interest in attending a future CFA meeting on how to develop a fire plan.
The State Control Centre confirmed at 12.40pm on Sunday that the fire was under control and burning within containment lines, posing no further threat.
“It has been incredibly dry up till now and this is an area that’s long unburnt,” said Country Fire Authority incident controller Bernard Barbetti.
“There’s lots of dead trees up there, so it was spotting from tree to tree, from bark on one tree to the next. Flames were twice the height of the trees at midnight.”
The fire was spurred on by hot conditions on Saturday, when temperatures reached 34 degrees.
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