At least six homes have been lost in the bushfire since it started burning west of Ballarat last week. Crews are still working to establish the number of fences, stock and agricultural equipment that had been lost.
Heffernan said the fire authority was working with the Bureau of Meteorology on Thursday morning to gain a greater understanding of how the fire may behave over the coming days.
Despite the cooler conditions, Heffernan said they were expecting some northerly winds in the Grampians region on Thursday.
“We’ll have a better picture in terms of what the fire will look like [today], and then we’ll start to think about where we position resources,” he said.
“Yesterday was one of those really, really bad fire days,” he said. “Firefighters did a fantastic job keeping one fire at bay and getting on top of the other.”
More than 100 firefighters from the NSW Rural Fire Service and NSW Fire Rescue travelled to Victoria to support the effort this week. A large air tanker and Black Hawk helicopter were also made available from NSW.
State Control Centre spokesman Luke Heagerty said resources that had been sent from Victoria’s east and NSW would begin returning home on Thursday.
Heagerty said aircraft were close to Dereel when the fire started and were able to work until dusk to assist ground crews.
“That was a fire that started right at that time that we didn’t really want any fires starting,” he said.
“That was when the winds were both at their strongest in that part of the state – the temperatures were right at their peak – but we also knew we had the wind change coming through almost immediately. And that’s what happened.”
Heagerty said the temperature had been 36 degrees in Mildura at 9.30pm on Wednesday. He said the fact that temperatures had peaked later in the day likely meant communities narrowly avoided a much worse outcome.
“If we had seen those conditions show up earlier in the day, then I think we’d be telling a different story this morning,” he said.
Heagerty said controlling the Bayindeen fire would be more achievable in the days ahead after firefighters largely prevented it from spreading.
“The main focus for that one is reinforcing existing work that’s been done to get it to a point of containment and then getting it under control.
“The fact that it burned through some forest area means that there’s a risk of trees … falling over with no real warning … we need to make sure it’s safe before the community returns.”
Authorities will continue to review the area around the Bayindeen fire, where residents have been advised it is not safe to return home. Residents who live within the broader area who were advised to leave on Tuesday are expected to return home on Thursday.
Source Agencies
