Heavy rainfall helps firefighters douse Melbourne bushfire

Heavy rainfall in Melbourne's east has helped firefighters get on top of a bushfire blazing in Montrose overnight.

Transcript

00:00This rain has been falling pretty relentlessly for the past few hours.

00:06There's been more than 10 millimetres in the area which has really helped firefighters

00:11get on top of this blaze and it's now been downgraded to an advice.

00:16So the volunteer firefighters behind me at the Montrose Fire Station are having a bit

00:20of a break but there are up to 30 trucks out here yesterday and three different choppers

00:26in the sky trying to get on top of it because yesterday could not have been more of a contrast

00:31to today.

00:32The temperatures were reaching into the high 30s and Victorians were warned it was going

00:37to be a day of high fire danger and then their worst fears came true when this blaze started

00:43yesterday afternoon and then it really kicked off again around midnight with some gusts

00:48of wind and that's when there was an emergency warning that was given to residents in the

00:53area and some of them are saying they didn't hear it initially and so what they've done

00:59is they've got out of their house and started to warn their neighbours.

01:03Take a listen to someone we had a chat with just a little bit earlier.

01:06Just burning across a couple of streets away and it was scary so I was ringing my neighbours

01:15because they had already left and I was like how do I get into your backyard, how do I,

01:18where's the taps, it's pure darkness.

01:21So we were watering our house and the ones that were closest to the fire because embers

01:25were flying over and we picked up one and it was, you know, it looked like a bit of

01:29tambac off a tree and it was still solid and I can now see how embers do their thing.

01:36Sian what do we know about the cause of the fire?

01:41Well we do know that yesterday was a high fire danger across the state of Victoria with

01:46strong winds and of course those really hot conditions.

01:50We have heard reports that people have seen teenagers running out of the bush but that

01:55hasn't been confirmed by any authorities at this point and the CFA are still in charge

02:01of this blaze so at this point police don't have control so it's really under investigation

02:07just looking at exactly what started this fire and why it kicked off again at midnight

02:12but that's something that authorities are looking at today as firefighters do all they

02:16can to make sure it doesn't kick off again and especially with this rain to make sure

02:21that none of the trees that were damaged fall over and injure any persons or any more properties.