Temperatures across Victoria are expected to reach 40C (104F) with strong, dry winds, while parts of South Australia and New South Wales could also face bushfires from Thursday to Friday.
“We are expecting extreme fire danger across most of the state,” said Luke Hegarty, a spokesman for Victoria’s State Control Centre.
“This is the most significant fire danger the state has seen — in all areas of the state we’re talking about — since the Black Summer. It is important that people understand that Thursday is a day with serious potential,” he added.
Four interstate fire brigades and two incident response teams of more than 100 will arrive in Victoria in the coming days to provide a reprieve for emergency crews who have been working around the clock to tackle the ongoing fires.
The decision to allow families around the Grampians temporary access to their homes “to get Christmas goods … presents and such” was made by State Fire Authority (CFA) chief officer Jason Heffernan on Tuesday morning.
“(It’s) to make sure that Halls Gap residents will be relocated at Christmas at least they will have what they need,” he told Seven’s Sunrise programme.
Mary Ann Brown, who lives on the southern edge of the Grampians National Park, told the ABC her community was on edge for the holidays.
“We won’t be out of the woods until we get a really good drop of rain, and that might not come until March or April, so it’s going to be a long summer.”
Parts of Australia have been on high alert for bushfire danger this summer after several quieter seasons compared to 2019-20. linked to hundreds of deaths and covered 24 million hectares of land.
In recent years, the country has lurched from disaster to disaster, experiencing both record floods and intense heatwaves as it feels the effects of climate change.
