Victorian residents urged to leave communities immediately amid out-of-control bushfires

Multiple communities are under threat of bushfire in Victoria, with residents urged to leave immediately.

A fast-growing fire in Victoria’s Grampians National Park razed 28,000 hectares by Saturday morning despite firefighters best efforts to battle the blaze overnight.

Residents in the nearby towns of Bellfield, Halls Gap, Lake Fyans, Pomonal, Mafeking, Watgania and Grampians Junction have all been told to leave immediately.

Emergency services said they may not be able to help those who stay.

At 12.30pm on Saturday, a warning for a fire in Bullengarook, northwest of Melbourne, was upgraded to an evacuation order.

That blaze is travelling north from Coffeys Rd and residents in Bullengarook have been told to leave now and move to a safer location.

Bullengarook is 14 kilometres west of Gisborne and 19 kms north of Bacchus Marsh.

Emergency warnings are also in place for residents in The Gurdies in South Gippsland.

The Grampians fire has sparked a raft of tourism cancellations at the popular camping and hiking destination, with the park currently closed.

Dunkeld Caravan Park caretaker Erin Hinchliffe said the fire’s timing just before Christmas had been a major hit to what would have been the campground’s busiest period since before the pandemic.

“We had a full house. It was the first time in six years that we’ve been able to get the occupancy up over Christmas and New Year period,” she said.

Emergency Management Victoria controller Mark Gunning said the area around the fire, which started near Yarram Gap Road, was already extremely dry and very little rain has been forecast.

“It is in really challenging country, which has allowed the fire to establish on the escarpment,” he said.

Red sky covers Melbourne, other parts of Victoria

The large blaze blanketed parts of Victoria and Melbourne in smoke, producing an orange-tinged sky.

Heavy smoke has been reported around Ballarat, Dandenong, Point Cook, Caroline Springs, Sunshine, Moonee Ponds and Bacchus Marsh.

Extreme fire danger has been forecast and total fire bans are in place for the Wimmera and Mallee districts on Friday.

High fire danger is expected to persist in western, northwestern and northern Victoria into next week.

Two air tankers have been water bombing the fire continuously, assisting a significant deployment of the state’s aerial firefighting resources.

Firefighters in Western Australia and NSW have brought scores of fires under control in recent days, but temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s are expected to hit the west coast over the weekend before pushing eastward.

“The heat really building, though in WA, a very hot day on the way across much of our West Coast,” bureau meteorologist Dean Narramore said.

Elevated fire dangers are forecast for the south of WA with dry thunderstorms possible for western parts.

Heatwave conditions are also persisting across the state’s midwest affecting Mingenew and Coral Bay as well as the Kimberley and Pilbara regions.

Above-average temperatures are predicted for the 2024-25 summer in many parts of the nation, according to long-range forecasts from the Bureau of Meteorology, underscoring a grim outlook from emergency services.

With hot temperatures expected to persist into Christmas, Victoria’s Country Fire Authority has urged people to plan ahead.