'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.

Transcript

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

00:05will be uncontrollable, unpredictable, and will be very fast-moving.

00:10The areas that are in catastrophic fire danger rating today is the Wimmera, the Southwest,

00:17North Country, and North Central districts. The remainder of the state is in extreme fire

00:23danger rating. So anywhere in the state today will be challenging and difficult conditions

00:28for our firefighters. With the winds that we'll see today, there will be periods where our aviation

00:34fleet, that is over 70 aircraft today, will not be able to fly. And so we are reminding communities

00:41you need to heed the warnings to leave now. If you're in a bushfire-prone area, a bushland area

00:47of Victoria, our strongest advice is leave now if you haven't left already. If you don't leave now,

00:55it could result in your life being lost. Firefighters have been working very hard in these

01:01challenging and difficult conditions overnight on a range of fires. This morning we've had 40 fires

01:07already in the landscape. 30 of those remain active. As a result of the dynamic and challenging

01:14conditions on the Longwood fire, I can now confirm that we have had community and residential

01:21property losses. We know that we have had the community centre and the telephone exchange damaged

01:27or lost at the township of Ruffey, and in and around the Ruffey township there are multiple

01:34homes that have been lost to fire. We can't confirm those numbers at this stage. It's still too dangerous

01:40to get in and on the ground, but we have seen through our aerial intelligence gathering helicopters

01:46that we have lost multiple properties in and around the Ruffey area. On the Wawa Fire in the north of the

01:53state, we've also seen damage to a significant pine plantation there. 1,200 to 1,600 hectares of pine

02:01plantation in 22 years of age, so well-matured pine plantation, has also been lost. But at this stage,

02:09there have not been any property losses reported as a result of that significant fire. But overnight,

02:16with lightning, we have seen a range of fires pop up across the state, particularly in Gippsland,

02:21and Chief Fire Officer Chris Hardman will speak about that shortly.

02:26Obviously, our thoughts are very much with the communities in and around the Longford fire

02:31at the moment where those property losses have occurred, and we will get around and support those

02:36communities today, and the Premier will speak more about that in a moment. Our fire chiefs will also

02:43speak about the potential impact zone maps for the two significant fires, being the Longwood fire and

02:48also 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

03:02already for that fire, and people need to heed those warnings. For the Walworth fire, we have three

03:09emergency warnings and four watch and act warnings in place. And again, for the communities in and

03:14around that fire, you need to heed those warnings now. We also have advice warnings out for a complex of

03:21fires down in the Gippsland region. Late yesterday, we saw 92 personnel from New South Wales Fire Rescue,

03:30sorry, Rural Fire Service join us from New South Wales to bolster our efforts here in Victoria,

03:38and they've been deployed out to the Longwood fire this morning. We've also requested an additional 117

03:45interstate personnel that will arrive on Saturday to be available for Sunday, and that is a mix of

03:52incident management team personnel along with additional firefighters into the landscape.

04:00Q&A.

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