



Wind change raises inferno alarm


Marika Dobbin

TWO bushfires burning out of control in Victoria's north and east are at risk of merging to create a 500,000-hectare inferno because of a forecast wind change, authorities warn.

Emergency service chiefs say a warm northerly predicted for Saturday could push a massive uncontained fire which spans from Yea to Kinglake towards one still raging in the Bunyip State Park.

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Just 18 kilometres separated the two blazes yesterday, with the towns of Yarra Junction, Warburton, Healesville, Launching Place and Powelltown in between.

Country Fire Authority deputy chief fire officer Steve Warrington said while calm weather was aiding the fight against bushfires, lightning strikes had started spot fires in the 18-kilometre buffer zone.

"The emergency services are working together to make sure that our number one priority is the protection of lives in these communities," Mr Warrington said.

All available bulldozers and fire aircraft have been deployed to carve out a 100-kilometre containment line along the southern border of the Kinglake complex ahead of the forecast wind change.

By 8pm last night fire crews had put earth breaks along about a quarter of that.

A sudden and strong wind change partly caused the catastrophic conditions that claimed at least 181 lives on Saturday, with the toll expected to rise.

The possible merging of the blazes would provide a fresh test of the defend-or-leave early policy.

A united fire would also put Melbourne's largest water catchment, the Thomson Reservoir in the Upper Yarra Valley, and the Longford gas plant under threat.

"We are closely monitoring the weather, which way the wind comes from, the speed of the wind and the temperature," Mr Warrington said.

"A fire in the catchment is something of significance in the immediate term and, in the longer term, if the water harvest is affected by the destruction of the catchment.

"There is a huge effort going on minimising the impact of that fire as we speak. And everything is being done to prevent the fire reaching the gas plant at Longford."

Emergency Services Commissioner Bruce Esplin said favourable temperatures forecast until Saturday were helping in the effort to dig the crucial containment lines, but almost inaccessible mountain terrain and the sheer exhaustion of fire crews made it an onerous task.

"Our message today is that there is still an ongoing emergency, there are still fires burning, there are thousands of people fighting the fires," he said. "It's not over yet. It won't be over for some time."

Mr Esplin warned residents to stay vigilant and informed because "there will be more bushfires".

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