By Callum Ludwig
With the lifting of Fire Danger Period restrictions on Thursday 1 May, many Yarra Ranges residents have taken to conducting long-awaited burn-offs.
Unfortunately, multiple factors have caused a number of fires to get out of control and prompt a swift reminder to make sure residents are prepared before lighting any fires.
Notably, one out-of-control blaze late at night on Tuesday 6 May in near Cement Creek Road and Woods Point Road in East Warburton, with firefighters paged to respond at 1.48am.
Warburton CFA Captain Ron McIntosh said there were several calls made and the fire was impinging on a house and some sheds.
“Within 10 metres of it, we found the fire was actually on Yarra Valley Crescent and had crossed from the lower left side to the top right where it was impacting on the deck and side of a house and the lower fire was also approaching several houses,” he said.
“The first truck had firefighters going in both directions and the second truck went up Grandeur Drive from the opposite direction to attack the fire from above,”
“We hit it hard and fast with what we had and as other brigades started turning up to help extinguish what could have been something worse turned out good as far as property and life was concerned.”
With no mains water available in this estate in East Warburton, the cavalry from other brigades was required with 14 brigades assisting in total, bringing 22 appliances and more than 60 firefighters.
Mr McIntosh said it all started just like alot of the fires recently: unattended burn-offs, burn-offs not being extinguished properly before leaving or not having sufficient water.
“It was brought under control around 4am but had burnt out approximately three acres which meant a lot of blacking out was going to be required,” he said.
“We had Edithvale’s Mobile Command Vehicle come out with their drone to help us identify hot spots and later in the day, Rowville came out again to double check we had extinguished everything,”
“We had a shift change from other members around 8am so the other firefighters could be released for a well earned rest and wash.”
Firefighters attended the scene throughout the day and into the next night with Mr McIntosh himself not leaving the secen until 5.30pm. Ambulance Victoria and Yellingbo CFA’s Rebab unit attended to ensure the welfare of fireifighters, Victoria Police assisted with notifying house owners and traffic control and Forest Fire Management Victoria felled unsafe trees to help firefighters to extinguish the fire safely.
Other brigades and members who attended came from Healesville, Hillcrest, Hoddles Creek, Little Yarra, Reefton, Seville, Silvan, Wesburn/Millgrove, Yarra Junction, the Yarra Valley Group of Fire Brigades and CFA District 13 Assistant Chief Fire Officer David Renkin.
Hillcrest CFA went on to attend another out-of-control burn off that afternoon on Lusatia Park Road in Woori Yallock, with an Advice warning issued for the intersection with Schoolhouse Road due to smoke over the road.
Hillcrest CFA 3rd Lieutenant Peter Jenkin was the incident controller for the fire and said the winds had whipped it up well and truly, so there were multiple large stringy bark trees on fire.
“It’s right near the water pipeline do the biggest concern was that it was actually going to travel down the pipeline, we had a slight wind change because it was swirling and then it jumped across the pipeline and it looked like it was gonna jump across Lusatia Park Road southbound,” he said.
“Luckily, the two Hillcrest tankers rocked up fairly straight away with Hoddles Creek not far behind and we were able to at least pull it back enough that when the other arriving tankers came in to give us a hand that we were able to pull it up completely,”
“I think if we had been five minutes later, we would have been looking at a completely different story.”
Six CFA units from Hillcrest, Yarra Junction, Hoddles Creek, Yellingbo and Seville attended the Woori Yallock fire at 1.25pm, as well as Victoria Police.
Mr Jenkin said with fire restrictions coming offf, wanting to burn-off is perfectly fine but what he is seeing is people are building fire piles under or close to stringybark gum trees.
“People really need to think about the size of the fire that they’re lighting and whether to break it up into smaller piles or once that’s burnt down, put some more on it later, don’t just make this massive pile and light the whole thing up and let it rip,” he said.
“Stringybarks only need an ember to lob into them and they go up like candles… the other thing is positioning of the fire, make sure it’s out in open ground and try to keep it away from stringybarks and other flammable bushes that we’ve got,”
“The classic example yesterday was that it was quite breezy and ighting on a day where the breeze is up is not an ideal idea, we say what the wind speed should be, but that’s hard for people to gauge so a good little test would be put an A4 piece of paper on the ground and if the wind picks it up and blows it, it’s too windy.”
CFA advises residents not to burn-off if wind speed exceeds 10km/h.
Emerald CFA Captain Klaus Brodeck said their brigade has attended no fewer than six incidents since Saturday 3 May.
“It is a really high number for us, and the majority of those were on Monday and Tuesday where we did experience higher winds than normal, so that was what kept us busy the last few days,” he said.
“They do vary from burn-offs that have run up a tree, or the resident hasn’t been actually manning the fire and they’ve lost control and it’s spread to a neighbour’s property, to other ones which have been large burn piles which again may not have been supervised,”
“I think they (residents) should identify what the Council restrictions are for their area, a lot of the people who did lose control of their burn-offs were following the right rules, but in saying that, they just did not take heed of the conditions of the day.”
Since the lifting of fire-danger period restrictions, there have also been fires in Cockatoo, Macclesfield, Gruyere, Healesville, Seville and Mt Evelyn.
If you are planning a burn-off longer than two hours away, register online on the Fire Permits Victoria website. If you wish to start your burn-off immediately, register your burn-off by calling 1800 668 511.
