Firefighters yesterday were desperately trying to stop a cluster of fast-moving blazes in southeast Australia, as thousands of hectares of national park burned and a farming community was forced to evacuate.
Lightning strikes on Monday evening ignited several fires in the Grampians National Park, a forested mountain range about 300km west of Victoria state’s capital, Melbourne.
A separate fast-moving fire in Little Desert National Park in the west of the state has torn through almost 65,000 hectares in less than 24 hours, emergency services said, scorching an area almost as large as Singapore.
Photo: VicEmergency / Victoria State Control Centre / AFP
That fire had forced the evacuation of rural Dimboola before threat levels were downgraded yesterday afternoon.
“I’m incredibly thankful that no lives have been lost and we have no reports of injury either,” Victoria Emergency Management Commissioner Rick Nugent told reporters.
Victoria Forest Fire Management Chief Fire Officer Chris Hardman said that weather conditions over the next few days are increasing the possibility the fires would spread.
Photo: VicEmergency / Victoria State Control Centre / AFP
“Right now firefighters are planning to do everything in their powers to protect communities,” he said.
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Kevin Parkyn said that stifling heat wave conditions would settle over parts of Victoria on Saturday, escalating fire risks.
“When we look at the next seven to 10 days the main message is that there will be a hot dome over Victoria,” he said. “Once we get into the weekend don’t be surprised if we see heat wave conditions unfold across the state, and continue to intensify into next week.”
“The landscape is dry, and if we continue to see these hot conditions, it will continue to dry the landscape out further,” he added.
Hotter temperatures are fueling increasingly severe natural disasters across Australia, researchers have found.
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