00:00At his property on the eastern edge of the Grampians, Graeme Nicholson could find himself
00:07in the firing line on Thursday evening.
00:10Probably not the actual fire, but ember attack potentially is the risk that we face here.
00:17But with a water tanker at the ready, he says he's fully prepared to defend his property.
00:25It should only be like intense grass fire as such.
00:28So stay and defend and hope for the best.
00:32We know on Boxing Day we're going to have really strong northerlies.
00:34A community meeting in Moyston this morning showed just how large an area could be under
00:40threat on Boxing Day if parts of the fire breaks containment lines.
00:46The only way to guarantee your safety in a high bushfire risk area on a day like this
00:50is not to be there.
00:51That's what happened in Halls Gap last weekend when residents fled the Grampians fire.
00:57Today they were given a two hour window to return.
01:01To secure our property, grab any last items that we may need including those Christmas
01:07presents.
01:08Justine Hyde joined dozens of cars waiting to be let in.
01:12Even right now it's very quiet and eerie and all I can hear is aircraft over the top of
01:16me.
01:19The preparations for Thursday are in full swing across Victoria.
01:25We put a call out last night and we've managed to wrangle 26 volunteers to come in and start
01:30setting up some tents for us and so I've wrangled my husband and two kids to come as well.
01:36Communities around the Grampians have had days to prepare for Thursday but with extreme
01:40conditions forecast across most of the state on Boxing Day, the CFA says any new fires
01:46will have a very real potential to be life threatening.
01:50It is the fire we don't know about that will be the fire that obviously is the concern.
01:55With those winds it's not going to take much.
01:58An entire state urged to stay alert.
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