A number of fires across East Gippsland resulted from dry lightning strikes on January 16 and one fire, 10 kilometres north of Buchan, is still burning out of control.
The rugged, bushy and inaccessible terrain is a challenge for the hundreds of Forest Fire Management (FFM) firefighters charged with bringing the blaze under control, and today’s forecast of a top temperature in the mid-40s is only adding to their woes.
Incident controller, Bernard Barbetti, said with a number of fires having burned across the region and the community seeing aircraft suppressing many of them, there was concern there may be a false sense of security.
“A Watch and Act was issued for the communities around Buchan on Tuesday night with Friday’s expected high temperatures to ensure the community was well prepared and ready to enact their fire plans,” Mr Barbetti said.
The Watch and Act was issued for the communities of Buchan, Buchan South, Gelantipy, Gillingall, Murrindal, Sunny Point, Timbarra, and W Tree.
“With the extreme conditions this fire could easily get away from us, which could easily happen if it crosses the creek and hits the north facing slope,” Mr Barbetti said.
“The community certainly needs to be on high alert.
“We’ve been ramping up resources and especially on Friday (today) people will see more tankers and crews in Buchan.”
Mr Barbetti said 10 aircraft were working the fire with three big heavy lift aircraft collecting water from various locations.
“We’ve had to use long line buckets because the area is so bushy, otherwise we just wouldn’t be able to get the water and retardant to the ground,” he said.
“They’re the most effective tool we have at the moment. We can’t get in there with bulldozers and we can’t hand trail it in, cutting through the bush, like we would normally do to attack a lightning strike fire.”
Twenty-four heavy machinery have been cutting control lines in preparation with hundreds of FFM crews, some coming from as far away as Mildura and the Wimmera, and around 40 other appliances doing what they can to get the blaze under control, joined by CFA personnel in the control centre and in the community to defend properties.
Mr Barbetti said with the difficult terrain crews had hoped the fire would come to them within the first few days, but unfortunately that was not the case.
“Now it’s a matter of waiting for the right conditions to be able to put in control lines and get it to burn out,” he said. Mr Barbetti said on Wednesday that the fire was flanked on three sides by the Timbarra River.
“The river is only four metres wide, and there’s a real chance it could cross it,” he said.
“It could easily spot across the river and we need to be able to suppress those spots before they get away.
“It’s a really hard game we’re dealing with here.”
