Victoria is bracing for a day of extremely dangerous bushfire conditions with temperatures in the state set to soar.
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00:00 This is a very, very concerning forecast for tomorrow. You mentioned off the top, very
00:06 high temperatures, as high as the mid-40s for the western parts of the state tomorrow,
00:11 late 30s to 40s for other parts of the state as well. Very strong Windsor forecast, 30
00:17 to 40 kilometres an hour with wind gusts of up to 60 to 80 kilometres an hour. And the
00:23 cherry on top of all of this, terrible cocktail for fire conditions, is that these weather
00:28 systems are expected to bring with it dry lightning. And it's because of this terrible
00:33 cocktail of conditions that fire authorities have now issued extreme fire danger ratings
00:38 for much of the state. In the very west of the state, the Wimmera district, that has
00:43 been forecast to have catastrophic fire danger ratings. And the southwest has been put on
00:48 notice. It's currently at extreme and could be upgraded to catastrophic. Fire authorities
00:55 have been bringing in extra resources today. 110 extra firefighters from New South Wales
01:01 as part of five strike teams have been brought in to join hundreds of Victorian firefighters.
01:06 And there are dozens of aircraft, a fleet of aircraft, that are now ready to respond
01:11 to these conditions tomorrow. The authorities spoke a little earlier today. Take a listen.
01:16 We have 66 aircraft available for tomorrow. And New South Wales have again assisted us
01:21 with support as well with a large air tanker, which we placed at Avalon, and a Black Hawk
01:27 helicopter placed at Essendon. Tomorrow is likely to be one of the most dangerous fire
01:33 days Victoria has experienced in recent years. And Mike, there's already a bushfire burning
01:40 out of control. Is that the one to the west of Ballarat that kind of claimed that there
01:45 were destroyed homes around Raglan? Joe, that's right. This is the Baindeen fire. It's currently
01:51 burnt through more than 21,000 hectares and it currently has a 200-kilometre perimeter.
01:58 And today, fire authorities have released some early information, some modelling about
02:02 what this fire could do in these fire conditions tomorrow. Essentially an impact zone where
02:09 they are expecting fire to move through, spot fires and ember attacks. And there are dozens
02:14 of properties that could be affected. There are 30,000 people that live in this zone and
02:18 they've been given a very clear message. This is what the Emergency Management Commissioner,
02:24 Rick Nugent, said a little earlier today. The potential impact area includes Beauford,
02:30 Elmhurst, Amphitheatre, Lexton, Learmonth and Clunes. Fire and spot fires and ember
02:38 attack are quite possible in these areas. So there you are. The advice is to act early.
02:45 Now is the time for Victorians, the authorities say, is to enact their bushfire survival plan.
02:51 Joe?
02:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]