Bushfire threatens properties in central Victoria, with rising heat to be followed by gusty storms
A fire has broken out near the Goulburn Valley Highway at Trawool in central Victoria. (Supplied: Yea Fire & Recue)
In short:
A bushfire is threatening homes at Trawool, south of Seymour in central Victoria.
The fire was fuelled by hot and windy conditions after it broke out in steep terrain in the Tallarook State Forest on Tuesday afternoon.
What's next?
Over 13,100 AusNet customers were without power on Tuesday evening across the state.
About 30 homes have come under threat from a bushfire that continues to burn out of control south of Seymour in central Victoria, as much of the state experiences hot and gusty conditions.
At 5:30pm on Tuesday, the fire at Trawool continued to burn in a southerly direction after starting near the Goulburn Valley Highway.
An emergency warning issued at 4pm told residents in some parts of Kerrisdale, Tallarook and Trawool it was too late to leave as the fire burned in a south-westerly direction towards Fairview Road and out to West Falls Road.
A wider Watch and Act warning urged others further south in Kerrisdale and Tallarook as well as Strath Creek and Reedy Creek to immediately leave ahead of an expected wind change between 6pm and 8pm.
But just before 9pm on Tuesday, the fire — which the the state's Country Fire Authority (CFA) says is travelling from the Goulburn Valley Highway in an easterly direction towards Kerrisdale and remains out of control — was downgraded to a Watch and Act, urging residents it was not safe to return.
To those south of the area, from Red Hill to Strath Creek, including Reedy Creek, a Watch and Act warning is currently in place, but the threat has reduced, according to Vic Emergency.
While the spread of the fire has slowed, the CFA is warning residents to monitor conditions and be ready to act.
Over 13,100 AusNet customers were out of power on Tuesday evening. (Supplied: AusNet)
Over 13,100 AusNet customers were also without power in Victoria on Tuesday evening — across three major faults, two of which were likely weather-related — with crews working to restore service.
Around 3,000 customers from the Seymour North/Nagambie region were currently affected as well as 4,500 customers in Avenel in Strathbogie, spokesperson for AusNet Karen Winsbury told ABC Readio Melbourne.
"Most likely it is weather related, but until we actually get some reports back it is difficult to say," she said.
Ms Winbury added that a fault across the east of the state in Moe, which was affecting over 2,900 customers was a result of a tree fallen on power lines, which crews were working to remove.
She said teams would be working through the night in order to restore power.
Fire began Tuesday afternoon
Incident controller Lucas Russell told ABC Radio Melbourne the fire had spread about 3 kilometres on Tuesday afternoon and burning embers were sparking spot fires 1.5 kilometres ahead of the fire front towards Strath Creek.
"It started low down on the range close to the highway and it's very, very steep terrain, very rocky forested area so it's quite difficult country to fight fires in," Mr Russell said.
The fire broke out in the Tallarook State Forest. (ABC News)
"That's what's helped the fire spread quickly is that uphill run up onto the plateau of the Tallarook ranges."
Mr Russell said a wind change was expected between 7pm and 8pm.
"It is expected the Goulburn Valley Highway will have smoke blowing over it and we'll have to consider whether that road is closed."
The State Control Centre's David Nugent said firefighters were racing to build containment lines on the eastern and north-eastern side of the fire ahead of the wind change.
"We'll be trying really hard to make sure we stop the spread of this fire ... so when the wind turns around it doesn't create a big, long new front for us," Mr Nugent said.
Authorities said the fire was generating burning embers that were being blown in the strong north-westerly winds. (ABC News)
Strath Creek local Clive has been watching the fire from his property.
"A lot of it's just smoke because of where it is … because it's in the Tallarook, which is a forest, it's not a great place for this fire to be burning," he said.
"We all know things can change pretty quickly."
Several aerial water bombers were working on the Trawool fire as a gusty wind change approaches. (ABC News)
Murrindindi Shire Mayor and CFA volunteer Damien Gallagher said locals who had evacuated from Strath Creek were gathering at a recreation reserve in Yea.
"This is a community that just very, very recently — last couple of days — has gone into recovery mode from the Longwood bushfire," he said.
"The crews are absolutely exhausted, the community itself is exhausted."
He thanked the community for again rallying during an emergency to support each other, but warned the town of Yea would need to monitor the fire when the wind changes direction.
The Department of Transport said it was monitoring the fire as it burns close to the Goulburn Valley Highway.
Drivers were being urged to instead use the nearby Hume Freeway.
Fire crews said they were working as fast as they could to contain the Trawool fire before an evening wind change. (ABC News)
Grassfire in Melbourne's west
Separately, an out-of-control grass fire broke out near the busy Western Ring Road in the west Melbourne suburb of Ardeer at about 3:30pm.
An advice message was issued for thousands of residents in Ardeer, Albion, Cairnlea, Deer Park, St Albans and Sunshine West to monitor conditions.
A grassfire broke out near the Western Ring Road in Ardeer on Tuesday afternoon. (ABC News)
An Advice warning was issued about 4pm for a grassfire in parkland on Tindals Road in Warrandyte, which was quickly brought under control.
Victorians had been warned that forecast heat, gusty winds and possible lightning strikes would create extreme fire conditions across much of the state today.
Temperatures reached the mid-30s in many areas, with winds reaching up to 40 kilometres per hour ahead of the cool change.
The grassfire at Ardeer was burning underneath the flight path to Melbourne Airport. (ABC News)
The Bureau of Meteorology's Daniel Hayes said the change was moving through western Victoria at 4pm, bringing wind gusts of up to 70 kilometres an hour.
He said it was also bringing some rainfall.
"There's some punchy showers in there," Mr Hayes said, adding that only one or two spots received more than 10 millimetres of rain.
"It is moving quite quickly but we're not seeing particularly heavy accumulations with it as it moves through.
He said there had been some lightning strikes in the Wimmera and Otways regions but they were sparse.
Emergency Management Commissioner Tim Wiebusch on Monday said the whole state remained a "tinderbox", with high fuel loads remaining unburnt by last month's bushfires.
Total fire bans have been declared in five of Victoria's nine fire districts — the Wimmera, South West, North Central, Central, and West and South Gippsland.
Mr Wiebusch said authorities were concerned about all areas from Victoria's west through to West and South Gippsland, including grasslands from Melbourne's north-west suburbs through to the Geelong region.
The Bureau of Meteorology said the cool change was expected to reach Mildura, Ballarat, Geelong around 5pm and Melbourne between 6pm and 8pm, pushing through the north of the state and through Gippsland overnight.