Fire bans for Vic., SA & Tas. amid extreme conditions

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Areas of concern for Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, as wild weather continues to cause chaos all across Australia.

Transcript

00:00 The fire authorities, it is very much in the states west.

00:05 That's where we're seeing some of the highest temperatures, the strongest winds and already

00:08 we see two grass fires burning at a vice level in Parwan and Warwick.

00:12 The CFA is keeping a very close eye on those and urging anyone in the area to do the same.

00:17 Of course it's particularly stressful for residents around the Grampians National Park.

00:21 We're a little more than a week out from when devastating fires tore through the town of

00:26 Pomona and Dadswell Bridge, destroying more than 40 properties there.

00:30 Now the fire threat once again.

00:32 Of course the winds are a particular concern as well.

00:35 The CFA has just told me there's stronger winds than they expected up in the Mallee

00:38 District in the northwest, which is a particular concern.

00:41 But all eyes at the moment as well waiting for these thunderstorms that might blow through

00:45 with dry lightning potentially igniting fires across the western parts of the state with

00:50 little to no rain to put those fires out.

00:52 Here's some of what the Bureau of Meteorology had to say.

00:55 The conditions are ripe for dangerous fire weather.

00:59 So it's just a day to be really, really careful about anything fire related and to take precautions

01:05 where you possibly can.

01:07 It's not looking quite as bad as that day last week when we saw those really, really

01:11 intense bushfires across the Grampians.

01:14 However we are still expecting some strong winds ahead of the cool change that will come

01:19 through later today.

01:20 So those stronger winds are most likely to impact western and central Victoria.

01:24 We could see wind gusts getting up to 60, 70, 80 kilometres an hour.

01:28 If we see some storms developing later in the day we might even get wind gusts even

01:32 stronger.

01:33 But aside from the gusts it's those sustained winds through the day in combination with

01:37 the dry heat that really generate those dangerous fire conditions.

01:43 And already we're seeing really strong winds across the state.

01:46 Gusts of 98 kilometres an hour in the states west.

01:49 Here in Melbourne at the airport gusts of 76 kilometres an hour recorded.

01:53 That's causing a whole separate problem with power outages once again hitting large parts

01:58 of the state.

01:59 Online trackers from the energy companies showing about 12,000 Victorians currently

02:06 without power.

02:07 So many of those in the states east which were severely battered by storms last week.

02:11 Power companies warning that today's storms could make the situation worse and hamper

02:15 efforts to get people back online who've still been waiting now nine days for their connections

02:21 to be restored.

02:23 Power outages unfortunately a common story for lots of people in Victoria at the moment.

02:27 Thanks Nicholas.

02:28 Let's go to Hobart now with Clancy Balan.

02:31 Clancy, what are authorities saying about conditions in Tasmania right now?

02:35 Ruby, authorities are quite concerned at the moment.

02:38 Conditions are extremely dry here in Tasmania.

02:41 Now 35 degrees may not be that hot compared to the rest of the country but Tasmania is

02:46 quite a dry state.

02:48 And with these conditions, hot, dry, windy, low humidity, it has fire authorities quite

02:54 concerned.

02:55 There are currently seven fires burning in the central highlands.

02:59 It's an area about 140 kilometers north of Hobart.

03:03 Those fires are currently under a monitor conditions warning.

03:07 So it hasn't gotten out of control yet.

03:09 There's no reports of properties at risk.

03:12 They currently have aerial firefighting planes trying to manage those fires at the moment

03:19 and that's being managed by Sustainable Timber Tasmania.

03:23 So they're trying to get that under control at the moment.

03:26 Those are the only fires that they're quite worried about and keeping an eye on across

03:30 the state.

03:31 But they expect the conditions across the south and southeast of the state to worsen

03:36 as the day goes on into the afternoon.

03:39 They're expecting conditions could worsen towards the east.

03:43 There's been some strange weather in Tasmania, especially along the east coast.

03:47 Yesterday, there was flooding.

03:49 They're expecting today there could be a fire risk for that area now.

03:53 So they're on high alert for that, making sure that conditions don't worsen.

03:57 There are also strike teams based out of Hobart that are ready to control this situation if

04:02 things get worse.

04:04 It's really a case of wait and see at the moment and try to manage the fires that are

04:08 currently burning.

04:10 Here's what the Tasmanian Fire Service had to say about it so far.

04:13 So it's a hot, dry and windy conditions.

04:17 The vegetation in our landscape here in Tasmania is fully cured now.

04:21 So our fire fuels particularly are ready to burn.

04:23 So the conditions today and leading overnight into tomorrow, if we do get fires to start

04:29 there is potential for these fires to spread quickly and cause significant damage to the

04:36 landscape and potentially structures as well.

04:39 We have implemented a total fire ban for southern Tasmania and that's from now or from 0200

04:44 this morning till 2am on Saturday morning.

04:47 Now they are expecting the conditions to continue into the evening but they're hoping for a

04:52 reprieve overnight.

04:54 So we're just going to have to see how the rest of the day goes working with these conditions.

04:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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