Victoria bushfires: Melbourne air ‘worst in world’; Daniel Andrews trumps Scott Morrison with inquiry
Health chief reveals Melbourne’s air has been rated the worst of any major city, as Daniel Andrews announces a bushfire inquiry.
- Melbourne ‘worst air in world’
- PM announces farmer relief
- Economy will take a hit
- Daniel Andrews calls inquiry
- Warning over hazardous smoke
- Australian Open hit
Welcome to The Australian’s live coverage of the ongoing bushfire crisis. Thick smoke haze from bushfires in Victoria and NSW is putting air quality in Melbourne at hazardous levels. Rain is expected for much of the NSW from Tuesday, while fires on Kangaroo Island, in SA, are expected to burn for weeks.
Lachlan Moffet Gray 4.56pm: Emergency warning issued in Victoria
The Victorian Country Fire Authority has issued an emergency warning for the areas of Tamboon and Tamboon South, advising anyone in the area to take shelter indoors as it is too late to leave.
This EMERGENCY WARNING - BUSHFIRE is being issued for Tamboon, Tamboon South.
— VicEmergency (@vicemergency) January 14, 2020
The safest option is to take shelter indoors immediately. It is too late to leave.
More details at https://t.co/rAMotftGMB pic.twitter.com/R2cWkQkfFo
The warning was prompted by a bushfire that originated in Croajingolong National Park which is now heading westwards towards
The CFA says that the fire is “creating its own weather pattern” which is “causing the fire to become erratic.”
An update to the situation should be provided by 6.40pm.
The fire is currently the only one of 15 active blazes in the state that has been branded with an emergency warning as of Tuesday afternoon, although thick clouds of smoke have covered Melbourne, creating health hazards.
Lachlan Moffet Gray 4pm: Rain on the way
Rain is expected across much of the country from Tuesday for the rest of the week, and fire-affected areas in the NSW Snowy Mountains and south coast are set for good falls.
NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said it was the best news firefighters had had in months.
“From a fire point of view, this is the best week we’ve seen for many, many months in terms of easing some of the conditions,” he told the Nine Network.
“We are expecting right across the state - particularly the Great Dividing Range which happens to coincide where all this fire activity has been for the past few months - widespread 30 to 80 millimetres.”
He added that some areas with thunderstorms could see up to 100mm. “If it’s falling on fire grounds that will certainly have a positive effect right across the firefighting effort.”
“The downside is there could be localised flash-flooding, significant erosion and problematic run-off into water catchments.”
The RFS commissioner said filtration and other equipment was being deployed into water systems to protect drinking supplies.
The BOM says it was difficult to predict exactly how much rain would fall this week because downpours would be inconsistent.
Inland NSW is expected to experience the most rainfall.
Bega, on the NSW South Coast, is expected to receive between 3mm and 10mm on Thursday, when most rain is predicted to fall.
However, in Cooma, just 100km inland, falls of between 8mm and 25mm are forecast.
— with AAP
If this @BOM_NSW rainfall forecast comes to fruition then this will be all of our Christmas, birthday, engagement, anniversary, wedding and graduation presents rolled into one. Fingers crossed. #NSWRFS #nswfires pic.twitter.com/R9VfD0bqu2
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) January 12, 2020
2.20pm: Food prices on the rise
Agriculture Minister Bridget McKenzie said about 19,000 farmers, foresters and fishers had been affected by the fires, AAP reports.
Many of them had left their properties to join volunteer brigades in fighting the fires, but were now seeking to return home.
“We need to get our farmers back to business, to growing food. It’s what they want to do. It’s what they like to do.”
Senator McKenzie said the eligibility criteria for farmers will be “incredibly simple” to speed up the payments. The minister warned prices for fresh food would rise as a consequences of the fires.
Senator McKenzie has called on supermarkets to increase the price of milk. The Prime Minister welcomed news the US had downgraded its travel advice for Australia in response to the bushfires.
“There is a bit of a false perception overseas the entire continent has been affected,” Mr Morrison said. The Prime Minister will meet business leaders on Tuesday to discuss the bushfire response.
Their meeting is expected to cover areas including property loss, supply chains, staffing and customer levels.
— AAP
Olivia Caisley 1.45pm: Relief for farmers, graziers
Scott Morrison has announced a $75,000 grant for farmers and primary producers affected by this summer’s horror bushfire season.
The package, which is expected to cost $100 million and will come from the $2bn disaster recovery fund, was announced by the Prime Minister in Canberra on Tuesday after he met small business owners affected by the bushfire crisis.
“This is crucial rebuilding, immediate recovery support that is absolutely critical to enable these primary producers, these farmers, these graziers, to be able to get through this first hurdle, to get over this first hump, so they can be able to put themselves into a position to be able to start planning for their future,” Mr Morrison said.
He stressed the grants would be demand driven.
“It’s this $75,000 support we estimate and assign some $100 million out of the recovery fund to support this. This is an estimate. It is not a cap,” he said. “This will be a demand-driven program. If more is needed under the demand, then more will simply be paid without the need for any further decision.”
Rachel Baxendale 12.55pm: Melbourne’s air ‘worst in the world’
Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said Melbourne’s air quality had been the worst of any major city in the world overnight.
Air quality has been even worse in fire-affected areas.
“Overnight for Melbourne it did reach the worst in the world,” Dr Sutton said. “Those conditions overnight are obviously when there are cooler temperatures and the particulate matter can settle low to the ground.
“It will improve through the course of today I’m told, with warmer temperatures, the particulate matter will lift but yes it has been very, very poor in Melbourne overnight.”
Dr Sutton said Melbourne’s smoke on Tuesday was in the “very poor to hazardous” range.
“When you get to the hazardous range, anyone can develop symptoms,” he said.
“There is eye and throat and nose irritation, people can have a cough develop or worsening of cough or wheezing.”
Dr Sutton said authorities were particularly concerned about children aged 14 and younger, people age 65 and older, pregnant women and those with pre-existing medical conditions, heart disease, lung disease or diabetes.
“Those individuals need to make sure they have a plan in place to look after their health,” he said. “They might need to check in with their GP. They can call a nurse at any time.
“If they are real strife, they need to see a GP or call triple-0.”
Dr Sutton said people could also check their current local smoke levels by installing the EPA’s “AirWatch” app on their smartphones and entering their postcode.
“Melbourne is different from East Gippsland and the north east of Victoria which have really had many, many days in the poor to hazardous range.
“We will get respite over the coming days. It’s probably going to be in the very poor range, up to hazardous until late in the week, but it will improve over time.
“When conditions are good, or good to moderate air quality, that’s the time to open doors and windows to air your house and get the smoke out.
“Then when the air quality is poor, close doors and windows, stay inside, minimise your activity, try not to be engaged in outdoor activities if you can.”
Rachel Baxendale 12.40pm: Economy ‘will take a hit’
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said there was “no doubt” the fires would have a very significant economic impact.
“This is why we run surplus budgets, not just because of the need to have a buffer to draw down on to help with relief and recovery and replace equipment that has been damaged and all those practical things, it is also a buffer against uncertain times,” Mr Andrews said.
“There’s no question that the Victorian economy and Australian economy will take a hit because of less consumer spending, less tourism, all of those other things on top of the direct cost of making good after these fires as well.”
Mr Andrews urged people to reschedule rather than cancel their holidays and to visit fire-affected areas as soon as it was safe to do so.
“If you can be aware of your circumstances, it may be that the community is not directly impacted, it is still safe to go there and to spend your hard earned money and support that local community,” he said.
“The tourism minister (Martin Pakula) has been having discussions with a lot of the peak bodies and individual businesses, large and small, and we will have more to say about a tourism package soon.
“The Prime Minister is having a round table today in relation to small business. We will work and try and co-ordinate as best we can.
“I have been to enough of the communities now to see there is no one in these towns.
“There are no customers or very few and this should be the busiest time for so many, particularly the coastal communities, up in the alpine areas too, it will take some time for them to recover. We will have to stand with them and we will.”
Rachel Baxendale 12.30pm: 353 homes hit by fire in Victoria
Victorian Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville confirmed 3800 properties had been assessed in the state for possible fire impact, with 353 homes burnt.
“We’ve still got some more to do, but we have 353 homes that have been damaged or destroyed and over 548 properties, other than residentials, that have also been impacted,” Ms Neville said.
She urged those eligible for relief grants to apply for them. “One of the messages that I’ve received from particularly people in Gippsland is that they’re reluctant to access that grant, but this is a really important grant both for your recovery, but also to put money back into your local businesses, and so please don’t hesitate,” Ms Neville said.
“That is there to provide some support and relief for you.”
The Andrews government also announced on Tuesday that they will waive the landfill levy for those in fire-affected areas who need to dispose of waste.
Ms Neville encouraged people to make contact with a Bushfire Recovery Victoria case manager to be made aware of the full range of support available, by phoning 1800 560 760.
“Don’t hesitate to reach out. They will provide you with both that physical and mental health support, as well as financial support along the way,” she said.
In northeast Victoria and East Gippsland 1500 firefighters remain on the ground, attempting to use the cooler weather to get on top of 16 fires which continue to burn across the state.
Five watch and act alerts remain in place, with 60 aircraft part of the firefighting effort.
Rachel Baxendale 12.10pm: Royal commission ‘discussed’
Mr Andrews said he had discussed Scott Morrison’s plans for a bushfire royal commission with the Prime Minister over the weekend.
“He is still working through exactly what sort of inquiry he prefers and he has to go through his own cabinet process and he was clear with me about that,” Mr Andrews said.
“He will work through those issues.
“It is unclear to me — this is not a criticism but I don’t think it has been settled yet, whether this would be an inquiry into how the national effort can be as best co-ordinated as possible or whether it is an inquiry into the event more broadly.”
Mr Andrews said he had made clear to the Prime Minister that he intended to hold an independent Victorian inquiry led by Inspector General for Emergency Management Tony Pearce.
“I made it clear to him that it was the way we were going forward and Tony has a wealth of experience over many decades,” the Premier said.
“He has had a close look over very significant fires, one that started as a planned burn (at Lancefield) and Hazelwood and he has the experience and understanding and the status in our emergency services system to be the right person for this.
“It is unclear to me — I am not making criticism, I don’t think it has been settled exactly what a federal inquiry will look at, but I have a commitment from the Prime Minister for further consultation and trying to work together as best we can on that.”
Mr Andrews said he had not discussed the issue of climate change with Mr Morrison in relation to the fires. “He knows my views on those matters very well,” he said.
Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said the majority of Victoria’s fires had been caused by lightning strikes.
“The vast majority are lightning strikes,” Mr Crisp said. “We go back to the 21st of November and we watched that band of lightning go through.
“I am not aware of any ongoing investigations at the moment in relation to arson.”
Rachel Baxendale 11am: Premier calls inquiry
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has got in ahead of the Morrison government’s planned bushfires royal commission, announcing an independent investigation into the 2019-20 fire season in his state led by Inspector General for Emergency Management Tony Pearce.
The Andrews government will provide Mr Pearce with an extra $2.55m and require him to report on Victoria’s preparedness for the fire season and firefighting efforts by July 31, 2020, and on relief and recovery efforts by June 30, 2021.
Mr Andrews said much had been learnt and implemented following the royal commission into the deadly 2009 Black Saturday fires.
“So many things that we’ve learnt along the way have been evident during this really unprecedented fire activity so early on in our fire season,” the Premier said.
“There’s a number of different ways in which that inquiry, a number of different ways in which that tragedy has changed firefighting, recovery, relief, response to make us I think a much better co-ordinated emergency services family, if you like.”
Mr Andrews said Mr Pearce, who was appointed as Inspector General in 2014, had 35 years of experience in security, intelligence and emergency management.
He said the additional funding would employ an extra six staff whose focus would be on the two-part review.
“I think Tony’s the right person to do this,” Mr Andrews said. “He has the right skills, with the additional funding and the capability he’ll need for that dedicated focus, he’ll move around communities, he’ll speak to people who’ve been fire-affected, he’ll speak to all of our emergency services.
“We think that he can look at any and all matters, find the things that we can do better, but also confirm for us some of the other changes we’ve made over time, and just how effective they were in saving lives, saving property.
“This review will be particularly challenging and a standing officer is exactly the right way to go, because this fire season is far from over.
“We’re going to have more fire activity, in fact we have significant fire activity in our landscape right now, and to be at mid January and to have had almost 1.4m hectares burnt out, we know there’s a long way to go in terms of providing support to those communities affected, but also dealing with the inevitable new fire activity that’ll come throughout the balance of January, February and March, the balance of our more traditional fire season.”
The terms of reference of the investigation include:
• Effectiveness of emergency management command and control and Victoria’s operational response
• Effectiveness of the declaration of a state of disaster
• Timeliness and effectiveness of activation of Commonwealth assistance and resource availability
• State evacuation planning and preparedness process and practices
• Preparedness ahead of the 2019-20 fire season
• Effectiveness of immediate relief and recovery work and arrangements, and the creation of Bushfire Recovery Victoria, the National Bushfire Recovery Agency and how they work together.
Courtney Walsh 10.30am: Australia Open affected
The smoke haze that has engulfed Melbourne on Tuesday threatens to cause delays to the Australian Open qualifying tournament beginning today.
Matches at Melbourne Park were due to begin at 10am but play has been pushed back to 11am and air quality will be monitored. Read more here
Eli Greenblat 10am: Fires blamed for retail slump
Fashion chain Mosaic has become one of the first retailers to cite the bushfire crisis as it reports sinking sales. Read more here
David Ross 9.30am: Warning over hazardous conditions
Bushfire smoke has shrouded Victoria’s key cities of Melbourne and Geelong with the EPA warning of “very poor” conditions which are dangerous to health.
All EPA monitoring stations for the city’s suburbs report “hazardous” levels of smoke, with only the CBD, Brooklyn and Melbourne’s nearest neighbour Geelong escaping with “very poor”.
Authorities are warning all Melburnians and Geelongites to stay inside and avoid exercise if possible.
If you experience health issues from smoke, seek medical advice or call NURSE-ON-CALL 1300 60 60 24.
— VicEmergency (@vicemergency) January 13, 2020
Anyone experience wheezing, chest tightness or difficulty breathing should call 000.
For up to date air quality information visit https://t.co/VX5xEkgXV1#vicfires pic.twitter.com/GNr5ZQgjCD
Windows and doors should be kept shut and air conditioners programmed to recirculate air if possible.
The thick haze is set to linger over Victoria until Wednesday until as far west as Geelong after being blown into the city from huge blazes in East Gippsland and the alpine districts in the northeast.
The Melbourne Fire Brigade is warning the smoke is so bad they had been forced to attend 196 false alarms overnight.
A loop of the satellite image highlights the broad area of smoke across #Victoria. In the northwest the haze is thinning as it mixes with cleaner air aloft, however thicker smoke from East Gippsland is moving west and into Bass Strait https://t.co/F71arc6xjX 2/2 pic.twitter.com/cwz1pocw6H
— Bureau of Meteorology, Victoria (@BOM_Vic) January 13, 2020
Visibility is low, with Melbourne landmarks such as the city Skyline and the Westgate bridge largely obscured.
Coolaroo, in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, recorded the worst air quality of anywhere in the city on Monday.
Jennifer Oriel 9am: Greenies surfing over bushfire facts
Activists seek cheap political capital by exploiting our deadly natural disasters such as the current Australian bushfires. Read more here.
Lilly Vitorovich 9am: News Corp, Murdochs donate
News Corp has pledged $5m to Australian bushfire relief on top of personal donations of $4m by the Murdoch family. Read more here.
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