By Cassandra Morgan and Lachlan Abbott
Three firefighters have narrowly escaped after their vehicle caught alight and was destroyed in Victoria’s west, as crews face a dangerous wind change and further widespread extreme heat.
The NSW firefighters were battling the Little Desert National Park fire and managed to get out of their vehicle before it was engulfed about lunchtime on Monday.
Trees on fire around Wallaby Rocks in the Grampians National Park on Friday.Credit: State Control Centre
A wind change to the south on Tuesday is expected to keep fires moving in the national park. In the Grampians National Park, the wind change will threaten communities to its north, fanning flames into unburned country, authorities warned.
“What firefighters are trying to do at the moment is burn out that vegetation above those fires today and tonight, and try and take the sting out of those when the wind change comes through,” Forest Fire Management Victoria chief Chris Hardman said on Monday.
“They will be very much prepared and planning for that, and doing everything they can to minimise the spread of those fires, but hot spots will show up, and it will challenge us when the wind direction changes.”
Victoria was hit by hundreds of thousands of lightning strikes on Sunday, and the Bureau of Meteorology estimated about 50,000 of them reached the ground.
The lightning was to blame for many of the 114 new fires sparked on Sunday.
The Little Desert fires, two fires in the Grampians and four fires in the Great Otway National Park continued to burn on Monday.
Fire crews were confident they could secure three of the four fires in the Otways, and they would do everything they could to control the “challenging” fourth blaze, Hardman said.
Two homes and an outbuilding at Nangiloc on the NSW border were destroyed in a fire on Sunday.
“The rainfall that we have has not been widespread, and has not necessarily benefited firefighting activities,” Hardman said. “In fact, small amounts of rain can make it more difficult for firefighters to do the important work that they need to do.”
The State Emergency Service fielded about 950 calls for help on Sunday, about 500 of them from Geelong, where storms dumped hail and ripped the roof off at least one home.
Lara recorded 30 millimetres of rain within half an hour at one point on Sunday, while Mildura and Horsham reached a top of 43 degrees.
About 45,000 properties were without power at the peak of a widespread outage on Sunday. That number had dwindled to about 3500 by Monday afternoon.
Beating the heat at Altona Pier on Monday.Credit: Jason South
Melbourne Airport recorded a temperature of 38.6 about 3.10pm on Monday, while the mercury at Olympic Park peaked at 37.8 degrees just before 4pm, shy of the 38.5 degrees reached on Sunday afternoon. Viewbank in Melbourne’s north-east tapped 39.3 degrees about 3.45pm.
Forecasters warned temperatures would remain warm overnight, and a heatwave warning is in effect until Thursday.
Tuesday would bring some relief for southern Victoria, with a cool change developing in the state’s south-west in the morning and reaching Melbourne early in the afternoon, the bureau’s Michael Efron said.
Tuesday would still be hot in the state’s north, with temperatures in the high 30s or low 40s persisting until early Wednesday, he said.
Ambulance Victoria has responded to nine reports of children being accidentally locked in cars since Saturday, and Life Saving Victoria rescued 50 people over the weekend.
A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for heavy rainfall, damaging winds and large hailstones for parts of the south-west, Wimmera and central districts on Monday evening.
The weather bureau later warned severe thunderstorms over the south-west were likely to lead to heavy rainfall and flash flooding in the south-west overnight on Monday, including in Colac.
Heavy rainfall could also increase the risk of debris flow in fire-affected areas, and run-off could carry ash, soil, rocks and vegetation onto roads, tracks and waterways, the bureau said.
Women play bowls in Altona on Monday.Credit: Jason South
“We’re just starting to see some thunderstorms popping up over the west of the state, and they could produce damaging winds, heavy rainfall, as well, and also interact with fires currently in the landscape,” Efron said on Monday afternoon.
“As well as that, we are looking at showers and storms again redeveloping over inland parts, in particular throughout Tuesday. We could see heavy rain, large hail and damaging winds.”
Storms on Sunday rumbled from Geelong east to Melbourne, where Fire Rescue Victoria said a lightning strike was the possible cause of a house fire in Taylors Lakes.
Colac recorded wind gusts of up to 124km/h on Sunday night.
Lightning was believed to have struck this house in Taylors Lakes, sparking a fire. Credit: Nine News
The weather bureau’s Blackwood station in the Wombat State Forest recorded 70 millimetres of rain in the 24 hours to 9am on Monday.
An emergency bushfire warning remains active for Mirranatwa, a farming community nestled between two ridges at the southern end of the Grampians mountain range in western Victoria.
Mirranatwa has continually been under threat since bushfires erupted in the tinder-dry Grampians in December.
First, a lightning strike on December 17 triggered a blaze in dense bushland near Yarram Gap Road that burnt 76,000 hectares and threatened Halls Gap. Emergency services said that fire was contained on January 6 after it destroyed four homes in Moyston and Mafeking, 40 outbuildings, 1285 beehives, 775 sheep, a horse and a cow.
The Bullawin Road fire in the southern Grampians is the biggest blaze still burning and the most dangerous.
It has so far burnt 30,000 hectares around the Victoria Range and has triggered several alerts for communities on the western edge of the Grampians.
Victoria’s Environment Protection Authority has warned poor water quality is forecast at almost all beaches in Port Phillip Bay, rendering them not suitable for swimming as Melbourne’s weather heats up.
Our Breaking News Alert will notify you of significant breaking news when it happens. Get it here.