Emergency services are slowing taking control of the Little Desert National Park fires; however, authorities remain vigilant as the fire danger rating is increased for Wednesday.
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That was the message from the Incident Control Centre as it held its first bushfire community meeting for the season, albeit matter fitting to 2020 via a COVID-safe webinar.
Department of Land, Water and Planning's senior forest fire management officer Dom Uljanic said the smaller Pump Jack Track fire is now contained. However, the main Desert Discovery Walk is still out of control.
"I'm very thankful to say just just on an hour ago we were able to move that far from going to contained and what some time means is there is a fire control line," Mr Uljanic said.
(The Little Desert discovery walk) still has a couple of kilometers of edge to go; this fire has an edge of 50-55km. Given the time of day now (5pm) we're actually expecting that to be (contained) probably mid to maybe lunchtime tomorrow."
Authorities are monitoring the fires on the ground and in the air, with several hotspots under surveillance.
With temperatures expected to exceed 35°C tomorrow, the fire danger rating was upgraded to high.
Mr Uljanic confirmed the fires started from lightning strikes on Sunday and with wind gusts of up to 55km/h conditions accelerating the blaze.
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"The Western Mass fire - Pump Jack Track fire ran in a southerly direction with strong northerly winds, and we've been able to pull it up at Dahlenburgs Mill Track. We did a planned burn there a couple of years ago.
"Unfortunately, then there was a south-west wind change came through and was quite dusty and back at the northern end of that for where the fire started it burnt out in a north east direction towards the edge of the park. That fire fire went to the edge of the park, but thankfully it ran into an edge brakeburn we only completed in autumn."
More than 100 crews attended the bushfires on Sunday and Monday with about 70 on the scene today.
To keep up to date with the fire, visit https://www.emergency.vic.gov.au/
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Ben Fraser
Ben is the Editor with the Wimmera Mail-Times, Stawell Times-News and Ararat Advertiser. Ben is the former chief of staff at the Portland Observer, a qualified teacher, and an Leadership Great South Coast alumni (2019).
Ben is the Editor with the Wimmera Mail-Times, Stawell Times-News and Ararat Advertiser. Ben is the former chief of staff at the Portland Observer, a qualified teacher, and an Leadership Great South Coast alumni (2019).
