With severe fire weather and high alcohol consumption forecast this long weekend, emergency services have warned residents to be alert especially in national parks, on waterways and on the road.
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The number of alcohol-fuelled assaults and domestic violence instances are also expected to increase across the Australia Day weekend.
Representatives from Victoria Police, Country Fire Authority and Fire Forest Management Victoria have warned residents to stay safe and be smart this long weekend.
Wodonga Acting Senior Sergeant Stewart Smith asked residents to be alert during the extreme heat as police investigate a number of fires where the cause is suspicious or unable to be determined.
“We can't be everywhere,” he said.
“If [someone] see something that doesn’t feel right say something.”
Acting Senior Sergeant Smith said any dashcam footage of fires should be given to police.
He said police would be out enforcing laws on major highways, backroads and waterways this long weekend to prevent tragedy – while an increased number of alcohol fuelled assaults and domestic violence calls were also expected.
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Fire Forest Management Victoria assistant chief fire officer Aaron Kennedy said staff would be patrolling national parks and along rivers making sure campfires were properly extinguished and issuing hefty fines for unattended camp fires.
He said even when it was not a total fire ban day people should think twice about lighting a campfire.
“We’ve really hit a critical point in the bushfire season,” Mr Kennedy said.
“We’ve had prolonged fire conditions and we’ve still got five to six weeks left to go of summer so we’re asking people to be vigilant.
“Any fire that starts… will be very difficult to control and will pose a risk to communities.”
CFA operations manager Paul King said severe weather was expected on Friday, which could potentially wreak havoc on containment lines around 17 fires started by Tuesday’s lightning.
He said the region has been ‘baking’ for a number of weeks.
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“We’ll continue to work on them to lock them up but depending on the conditions we can’t guarantee they won’t get out – we’ll just be trying our hardest to make sure they don’t,” he said.
“We’re in this for the long haul, we haven’t had our most significant fire danger month yet, which is February.
“It’s going to be a trying time with the 10th anniversary of the Black Saturday fires... don’t underestimate the impact that will have on the community.”
Mr King said people need to avoid activities that can start fires, like angle grinding and slashing – even when a total fire ban is not in place.
He said rural residents should check their properties after lightning to identify fires early.
People can monitor incidents at http://emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/
Digital journalists with The Border Mail.
Digital journalists with The Border Mail.
