Three significant bushfires in Victoria are still burning, including two in the Grampians National Park in the state's west, ahead of heat wave conditions this weekend. Fire fighters are making the most of favourable conditions to back burn. They're also relying on aircraft to battle the blazes in challenging terrain.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Five watch and acts in place right now, one for that little desert national park that
00:05was burning much earlier in the week.
00:07But really the focus of today is on that Grampians, particularly on that western side of the Grampians
00:12where there are four watch and acts in place, three in the south and one in the northern
00:16part.
00:17Now, fortunately there was an emergency, emergency warning yesterday, but due to unfavorable
00:23conditions overnight, that was downgraded to a watch and act early, early this morning.
00:28The fire authorities noticed cooler temperatures and the winds had died down, so that allowed
00:34them to jump into, conduct more backburning essentially, and has temporarily for now at
00:41least slowed the spread of the fire.
00:43But as you said, they are still burning out of control.
00:46And Gillian, what else are fire crews doing ahead of that hot weather which is on the
00:50way?
00:51Yeah, so we're expecting high temperatures next week and a wind change.
00:59So currently there is a cooler southerly wind coming, which is pushing the fire and containing
01:02it in the park.
01:03But next week when that wind shift happens and the fire moves south, that could threaten
01:09local communities.
01:10So firefighters are really planning on basically burning about 9,000 hectares of containment
01:17line to essentially encircle these fires and kind of suffocate them from the outside in
01:23so that they don't have any more ground to burn.
01:25That operation is at full speed.
01:27So we're just peddling to the metal for these crews in coming days, trying to take advantage
01:31of the cooler weather before tomorrow starts to heat up.
01:35And there's been, I mean, fires have been burning there for a long time now.
01:38How are the communities within and also around these firegrounds feeling right now?
01:45Yeah, so we know that there was 77 or 78,000 hectare fire that burned over three weeks
01:53over Christmas and New Year's.
01:56These ones aren't as big, but they don't want it to get that big.
01:58So they're really, I guess, on high alert.
02:03Communities in Cavendish, where I was last night, and also in Hamilton, they're quite
02:07rural communities.
02:08So they're cautious and they're busy.
02:10Their farmers are, you know, bulldozing their paddocks, grading their fields, and really
02:17just bolstering fence lines, trying to get ahead of what might come next week.
02:21We know that in other highly tourist places, like Halls Gap, for example, they're also
02:27suffering because this period, the summer period, is their peak season.
02:31And with all these fires in place, it's making it very difficult for tourism providers to
02:36make their income.
02:38Gillian Ayer in Hamilton, thank you.