Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said at its peak there were about 100,000 properties in Victoria without power, but as of 7am this morning, this had been reduced to about 21,000. Crews are working to restore power to those homes.
The premier said she had not received any advice to suggest outages were linked to load shedding from high-demand and limited supply, with the outages linked to the extreme temperatures.
Allan said there were now eight active fires across the state, with two of these fires – at Larralea and Rocklands – starting yesterday.
About eight structures have been destroyed in the Larralea and Lismore areas, both west of Melbourne. There is now a reduced fire threat in these areas, with people located in Berrybank, Foxhow, Gnarkeet, Gnarpurt and Lismore now able to resume normal activities.
“Today continues to be a difficult day for our emergency services and firefighters, with, as I said, eight active fires in the landscape and a couple that are particularly causing some challenges,” she said.
“There are currently three emergency warnings and 13 watch and act alerts out for different fires across the state.”
Allan said a blaze around the Carlisle River was “very difficult” and subject to emergency warnings, with cooler conditions but winds creating extra challenges for emergency services.
The premier also warned that extreme heat would continue in the northern parts of the state and would put pressure on efforts to put out a fire at Walwa.
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