Conditions have eased in the Grampians region in western Victoria. As firefighters work to control fires which have burnt more than 74,000 hectares of bushland. Some infrastructure has been lost including fences and sheds and there have been some stock losses.
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00:00The conditions have eased considerably. It's a lot cooler today than it was yesterday when
00:06it was getting up into those high 30s. Winds have also dropped, although they are changeable,
00:12gusting, coming and going, but not as strong again as they were yesterday. I'm just outside
00:18of Ararat at the moment. We're about 20km from the fire front. This is about as close
00:23as well as we've been able to get and as most people have been able to get to the fire.
00:29The police are letting some residents through who have property in the area to attend to
00:34livestock but they have been keeping things very safe around this area. As you mentioned
00:41there have been some losses, fences, sheds, there have been stock losses and of course
00:48the damage to the Grampians National Park itself has been enormous. It's a beautiful
00:53area of bushland with many native species, flora and fauna and we can only begin to think
01:01about what has been lost there. At the moment we're looking at 74,000 hectares that have
01:07been burnt through the Grampians National Park here in Western Victoria and as has been
01:12said that's around the size of Singapore. So it is enormous and firefighters have been
01:19doing an incredible job. No residents' homes have been lost that we know of or lives lost
01:25or injuries which is an excellent outcome. There has been damage to the communications
01:31towers at Mount Williams. The power to one of the towers was affected by the fires. They
01:38have been using generators and batteries to get that power going again but there could
01:43be inconsistent coverage. That tower in particular was providing coverage for the MBN and Optus
01:50networks so people relying on those networks are warned that there may be inconsistent
01:56coverage until those towers are completely fixed and we've restored power to them. There's
02:03been about 163 registrations at relief centres overnight. Relief centres were set up in Stall,
02:11Hamilton and Ararat. There was also one at Skipton and some smaller centres which have
02:16now been closed. The biggest centre was at Stall where around 35 people spent the night
02:24last night. Five people spent the night in Hamilton and 26 at the Ararat Relief Centre.
02:30Others have been in motels nearby. So now firefighters are focusing on recovery and
02:38relief efforts. We got an update from the emergency services just a short time ago and
02:44this is some of what they had to say. People will still see a lot of smoke and those firefighters
02:52will be introducing much more fire into the landscape to prepare inevitably for the next
03:00spike day. It's not in the forecast, it's not in the outlook but it will come and the
03:04work that our firefighters are doing now in the communities and in the National Park
03:11will be really important to ensure that we stop those fires from spreading again in the
03:17next time we get a spike day in fire weather. So what are the current warnings in place?
03:27Well the best news of today is that all the warnings have been downgraded to watch and
03:32act. So that is excellent news and some residents will be able to return this afternoon, authorities
03:38hope, to the areas of Moyston, Pomona and Willowra. They will be able to return to their
03:44homes. Other fires in the state have also been downgraded. Those were fires at the Gurdies,
03:49Creswick and Belongarook which are now under control. There were some lightning strikes
03:54yesterday, around 250 lightning strikes and there have been some small fires that have
03:58been set off in the Alpine regions which authorities are keeping a very close eye
04:03on, of course, ahead of a predicted spike as summer progresses and the weather inevitably
04:10heats up again. But the fires here in the Grampians, although they have eased, they
04:15are expected to be burning for many more weeks.