'Uncontrollable, unpredictable, very fast moving': Victoria fire update

Australian Community Media

Up to 30 fires remain active across Victoria on January 9, 2026, with the highest fire danger rating in the Wimmera region, south west, north country, and north central district. Property and community losses have so far been recorded in the Longwood fire, where three people remain unaccounted for.

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00:00That means that any fires that are in our landscape today already or those that may start will be

00:05uncontrollable, unpredictable and will be very fast moving. The areas that are in catastrophic

00:12fire danger rating today is the Wimmera, the southwest, north country and north central

00:19districts. The remainder of the state is in extreme fire danger rating so anywhere in the state today

00:26will be challenging and difficult conditions for our firefighters. With the winds that we'll see

00:31today there will be periods where our aviation fleet that is over 70 aircraft today will not

00:37be able to fly and so we are reminding communities you need to heed the warnings to leave now. If

00:44you're in a bushfire prone area a bushland area of Victoria our strongest advice is leave now if you

00:51haven't left already. If you don't leave now it could result in your life being lost.

00:59Firefighters have been working very hard in these challenging and difficult conditions overnight on

01:04a range of fires. This morning we've had 40 fires already in the landscape 30 of those remain active.

01:12As a result of the dynamic and challenging conditions on the Longwood fire I can now

01:17confirm that we have had community and residential property losses. We know that we have had the

01:24community centre and the telephone exchange damaged or lost at the township of Ruffey and in and around

01:31the Ruffey township there are multiple homes that have been lost to fire. We can't confirm those numbers

01:38at this stage it's still too dangerous to get in and on the ground but we have seen through our aerial

01:44intelligence gathering helicopters that we have lost multiple properties in and around the Ruffey area.

01:51On the Wawa fire in the north of the state we've also seen damage to a significant pine plantation there.

01:581,200 to 1,600 hectares of pine plantation in 22 years of age so well matured pine plantation

02:06has also been lost but at this stage there have not been any property

02:10losses reported as a result of that significant fire. But overnight with lightning we have seen a range

02:17of fires pop up across the state particularly in Gippsland and Chief Fire Officer Chris Hardman will

02:24speak about that shortly. Obviously our thoughts are very much with the communities in and around the

02:30Longford fire at the moment where those property losses have occurred and we will get around and support

02:36those communities today and the Premier will speak more about that in a moment. Our Fire Chiefs will

02:42also speak about the potential impact zone maps for the two significant fires being the Longwood fire

02:48and also the Walworth-Mount Lawson fire. However we do have a number of warnings already in place.

02:56So for the Longwood fire there are two emergency warnings and two watch and act warnings in place already

03:03for that fire and people need to heed those warnings. For the Walworth fire we have three emergency warnings

03:10and four watch and act warnings in place and again for the communities in and around that fire you need

03:16to heed those warnings now. We also have advice warnings out for a complex of fires down in the Gippsland region.

03:23Late yesterday we saw 92 personnel from New South Wales fire rescue sorry fire rural fire service join us

03:34from New South Wales to bolster our efforts here in Victoria and they've been deployed out to the

03:40Longwood fire this morning. We've also requested an additional 117 interstate personnel that will arrive

03:48on Saturday to be available for Sunday and that is a mix of incident management team personnel

03:54along with additional firefighters into the landscape.

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