Victoria fires as it happened: Property, livestock lost as winds push bushfire north toward Elmhurst

About 1000 firefighters and dozens of aircraft are still battling an uncontrolled bushfire burning around the Pyrenees Ranges in regional Victoria to Ballarat’s west.

The towns of Elmhurst and Amphitheatre on the Pyrenees Highway remain under threat as winds continue to push the fire north-east.

As of 7.45pm on Friday, the following fire alerts were active:

• Emergency warning – Leave immediately – active for Bayindeen, Chute, Elmhurst, Mount Lonarch and surrounds.
• Watch and act – Not safe to return – active for Main Lead, Middle Creek, Raglan and Waterloo.
• Watch and act – Not safe to return – active for Amphitheatre, Avoca, Crowlands, Elmhurst, Eversley, Glenlofty, Glenpatrick, Glenshee, Green Hill Creek, Landsborough, Nowhere Creek, Percydale and Warrenmang.
• Advice – Stay informed – active for Amherst, Amphitheatre, Avoca, Beaufort, Brewster, Bung Bong, Burnbank, Caralulup, Chute, Crowlands, Ercildoune, Eurambeen, Evansford, Frenchmans, Glenbrae, Glenlofty, Homebush, Lamplough, Landsborough, Langi Kal Kal, Lexton, Lillicur, Middle Creek, Mount Lonarch, Percydale, Raglan, Rathscar West, Riversdale, Rosyth, Stony Creek, Talbot, Tanwood, Trawalla, Warrenmang, Waterloo and Waubra.

Federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt has said the number homes destroyed near the western Victorian town of Beaufort could reach double digits.

Watt, speaking on ABC TV late on Friday afternoon, said Victoria’s emergency management commissioner Rick Nugent had briefed him at the State Control Centre.

“The latest reports are that we [have] probably seen somewhere between five and 10 homes destroyed in and around Beaufort. The damage estimates are still under way, so they are not final figures,” he said.

“It does not look the damage is quite as severe as what we saw a week or so ago in Pomonal we lost over 40 homes.”

The chief executive of the Pyrenees Shire, the local government area in the middle of a raging bushfire in Victoria’s west, says the blaze has traumatised locals.

Jim Nolan, speaking to 3AW earlier this afternoon from the Maryborough relief centre, said a briefing had been held for a few dozen evacuees in attendance.

“The trauma that people have been through over the last 24 hours or so has been quite a concern,” he said. “And obviously, we’ve got a really active fire front still. And lots of people [have] been displaced during this process.”

Nolan said many had sought shelter with family and friends elsewhere in western Victoria, but those with nowhere to go had gone to relief centres set up in Maryborough, Ararat and Wendouree.