Victoria fires live updates: Bushfire threatens homes and lives near Beaufort

Emergency services have warned a wind change means those in the Pyrenees Ranges need to remain vigilant into the night as a bushfire burns near Beaufort.

As of 11pm on Thursday, fire alerts include:

• Emergency warning – Leave immediately – active for Ballyrogan, Bayindeen, Beaufort, Ben Nevis, Brewster, Buangor, Buangor East, Chute, Cross Roads, Ercildoune, Eurambeen, Eversley, Glenbrae, Glenlogie, Lake Goldsmith, Langi Kal Kal, Lexton, Main Lead, Mena Park, Middle Creek, Mount Cole, Mount Cole Creek, Mount Lonarch, Nerring, Raglan, Shirley, Stockyard Hill, Trawalla, Warrak, Waterloo and Yalla-y-poora.
• Watch and act – Leave now – active for Addington, Brewster, Burrumbeet, Ercildoune, Glenbrae, Lexton, Trawalla, Waubra and Weatherboard.
• Watch and act – Leave now – active for Amphitheatre, Avoca, Burnbank, Caralulup, Chute, Crowlands, Elmhurst, Evansford, Eversley, Glenlofty, Glenlogie, Glenpatrick, Glenshee, Green Hill Creek, Lamplough, Landsborough, Lexton, Lillicur, Mount Cole, Mount Cole Creek, Mount Lonarch, Nowhere Creek, Percydale, Rosyth, Talbot, Warrenmang and Waubra.

Late on Thursday, CFA chief officer Jason Heffernan told 3AW the main towns now under threat were Lexton and Amphitheatre to the fire’s north, and Addington and Burrumbeet to the blaze’s east.

Wind gusts of up to 50 km/h were causing challenges for firefighters, he said.

Beaufort and Raglan residents have tonight been told it could be days before they can return to their homes, according to a CFA spokesperson who said the fire situation was “dynamic” and “dangerous” as flames burned through “very rough country” into the night.

Briefing around 100 residents gathered at the Wendouree CE Brown Reserve just before 9pm, CFA West’s community engagement coordinator Chris Carey told residents the wind change had now hit, and the Beaufort fire front was about 20 to 30 kilometres long and heading north-east.

The total fire size was around 6700 hectares and mainly burning in state forest, he said.

“So [it’s heading] down towards Beaufort [and] Raglan, but it’s also starting to move up towards Mt Cole, Mt Lonarch,” he said.

In a late announcement, federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt and Victorian Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes have appointed a disaster recovery specialist to clean up fires and storms that smashed the state last week.

In a joint media release issued shortly before 9pm tonight, the pair said Hansen Yuncken, a construction company, will work with local subcontractors to rebuild properties damaged and lost in Victoria when extreme weather hit on Tuesday, February 13.

Fires claimed 46 homes and a business in Pomonal and Dadswells Bridge, near the Grampians, while the storms left 44 homes uninhabitable in the state’s east, mostly in Mirboo North.

Demolition of damaged houses, asbestos and other hazard removal will be included as part of the clean-up in the affected communities alongside tree removal.

Smoke from the out-of-control fires in the state’s west has been pushed east by the winds that brought the cool change to Melbourne earlier this evening.

Readers have shared images of the smoke as it passed over regional Victoria and Melbourne’s outskirts.

Ken Pryor snapped this image of the smoke at Langi Kal Kal about 2.30pm this afternoon.

Michele Martin sent through this picture of one of the blackened gum leaves that she found on her backyard in Ballarat North.