A cool change has eased conditions for firefighters battling an out-of-control blaze in Victoria’s Grampians following the worst bushfire conditions since 2019’s Black Summer.
Temperatures plunged on Thursday as gusty westerly winds swept over the blazes in the state’s west that have raged for more than a week and scorched more than 70,000 hectares of bushland.
Authorities issued a flurry of warnings to evacuate or seek shelter as the afternoon wind change took hold and fanned the flames in unpredictable directions.
The cool change had since slowed the spread of the fires as temperatures plunged, humidity rose and a small amount of rain fell, the Victoria State Control Centre spokesman Luke Hegarty said.
However, six emergency warnings remained in place as of 3am (AEDT) Friday.
Hegarty said in a late-night update that although authorities expected raging blazes to ease, “we are not yet out of the woods with these fires”.
While Victoria will get some reprieve with a cool change, the hot, dry and windy conditions will push into parts of central northeastern New South Wales, bringing extreme fire danger on Friday.
Total fire bans have been declared for the Hunter, Greater Sydney, North Western and Northern Slopes regions.
The chief fire officer at Forest Fire Management Victoria, Chris Hardman, told ABC News Breakfast the Grampians bushfire grew to more than 74,000 hectares overnight.
The blaze, the largest in the state, had a perimeter of around 360km which reached into communities on the east and south-eastern side on Thursday. Hardman said there had been no reports of homes being destroyed so far, but impact assessment teams would be examining the fire ground today.
There has been agricultural losses, including sheep, beehives, sheds and “other assets”, he said.
“When we say we lose some sheds, somebody could have $1m worth of equipment in a farm shed, so we must be mindful that even those losses can be significant for the agricultural community and local communities in those areas.”
There was a “reasonable” outlook in regards to the weather on Friday, but “we did have lightning right across the state last night and we could see new ignitions today,” Hardman said.
“It’s high fire risk right across Victoria, except in the north central [district] … but it is so much better than it was yesterday and people have been working hard to get folks back into their homes as quickly as humanly possible.”
The Grampians fire was significant and was likely to burn for weeks even with 600 personnel on the ground fighting it, Emergency Management commissioner Rick Nugent said.
“(It is) very difficult terrain and very dry in there. The conditions are such that it will be extremely difficult to put out,” he said.
The blaze has caused significant damage to the environment, fencing, outbuildings and sheds and resulted in stock losses, Nugent said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised at some point if we do have residential losses,” he said.
Thousands of people were without power on Thursday night as extreme heat and strong winds wreaked havoc on power lines, the Victorian energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, said.
“As the strong winds intensify, the risks of more localised outages will increase from tonight into tomorrow,” she said on Thursday.
Despite cooler conditions on Friday, the deputy premier, Ben Carroll, warned dangerous fire conditions were set to continue on Saturday.
