Victoria's heatwave ends, but strong winds hinder firefighting efforts in the west

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Temperatures have dropped across Victoria after a three-day heatwave, but strong winds are making it difficult for crews battling out-of-control blazes in the state’s west.

Transcript

00:00The cool change means that those winds really did swing around, pushing the flames closer

00:08to the north and to the west of two major fires that are still burning.

00:13They are in the Little Desert National Park, that's in Western Victoria, very close to

00:17the South Australian border, and also further southeast of that at the Grampians National

00:23Park.

00:24Now, we are seeing, that means, three Watch and Act warnings still in force for the Little

00:28Desert National Park area, and now that includes towns to the north, like Kanaiva, as well

00:34as areas to the west, such as Lillamure, which is very close to the border there.

00:40And for the Grampians National Park, we are once again seeing attention turn to the northern

00:46fringes of that national park, so up in areas like Zumsteins and also Glen Islay, as well

00:52as just further along the western fringe, further south from that.

00:58So we are talking about Woolpooa, Moralla and Cavendish, as well as the top of the Victoria

01:04Valley, which continues to burn as well.

01:07Despite that cool change, they are still getting up into the high 30s, and they are also dealing

01:13with some really gusty and brisk southerly winds as well.

01:17Now, in terms of the storms that actually ripped through Victoria on Sunday night and

01:23Monday morning, we now have a WorkSafe investigation into the collapse of a wind turbine tower.

01:30That was at the Bury Bank Wind Farm, which is just west of Geelong, and that happened

01:35yesterday.

01:36Now, they are going to investigate that, but we do know that at the time there were wind

01:42gusts of between 60 to 70 kilometres per hour, and this also follows some of the wind blades

01:48nearby being damaged during those storms that swept through on Sunday and into Monday.

01:55Now, we're hearing from the State Opposition, which is calling for a full audit of the wind

02:00turbines that are in Victoria as a result of this wind turbine collapse.

Category

Transcript

Recommended