As Melbourne sweltered in last week’s savage heatwave, the inevitable happened. Fires erupted on the city’s fringes and significant population centres around the state faced evacuations and loss of livestock and property.
The Hume Highway was closed from the Ring Road to past Craigieburn on Friday when a series of grass fires broke out along the main route north. Train services along the Craigieburn line were also suspended.
Firefighters, with more than 30 trucks, tackled at least eight separate blazes on Friday. A Melbourne radio reported the blazes as the work of a firebug, with similar suspicions over fires that threatened homes and properties at Sunbury the same day.
Multiple blazes occurred along the Hume Highway, from Beveridge to the Metropolitan Ring Road, with the first thought to have started at Epping.
Donnybrook, Epping, Kalkallo, Lalor, Somerton, Roxburgh Park, Campbellfield and Craigieburn were issued “watch and act” alerts, which advise of unstable emergency conditions that require people to start taking action to protect their health, life and families.
Hume mayor Casey Nunn was on standby at Craigieburn with the local ambulance service during Friday’s outbreak, while her husband Daniel battled the blazes nearby. She said she returned home from a funeral and was in one of the last vehicles to be let through along the Hume Highway.
Cr Nunn said she was not convinced the fires she passed had been deliberately lit.
“There may have been a bit of chaos and misinformation,” she said, suggesting the fires she saw could have been started by the exhaust emissions of a truck or other heavy vehicle.
“There were a number of fires on the median strip and some on the side of the road.”
The Calder Freeway was opened and closed a number of times late last week as firefighters battled blazes on Sunbury’s outskirts over four consecutive days.
On Friday, a fast-moving, five-hectare fire travelled south from Racecourse Road in Sunbury towards Dunrossil Drive, Hopbush Avenue, Correa Way, Lock Court and Marshall Close.
CFA, MFB and Department of Environment and Primary Industries officers attended another fire the same day near Moore Road and the Calder Freeway.
This was in a similar location to a fire that broke out last Tuesday, which is still under investigation. That blaze jumped the Calder Freeway, forcing its closure between Gap and Vineyard roads.
In January last year, a suspicious grass fire came within metres of houses in the same area. Victoria’s fire commissioner, Craig Lapsley, described last week as a turning point in the current fire season, calling on residents to stay alert for the threat of fires over coming weeks as the state dries out further and the danger period reaches its peak.
Emergency warnings and advice are available at www.emergency.vic.gov.au or www.cfa.vic.gov.au
For wildlife emergencies, contact Wildlife Victoria on 1300 094 535.
