Twenty-five homes have been destroyed by bushfires in Victoria’s Grampian region, as 60,000 homes across the state remain without power after storms hit two days ago.
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, warned the number of homes lost in the fires could rise as she visited the western Victorian towns of Pomonal and Dadswell Bridge on Thursday, where the properties were located.
“The community of Pomonal was really hit hard,” Allan told reporters from Dadswell Bridge fire station. “Current estimates are 24 homes have been lost, three businesses and 23 outbuildings and there is an expectation that number could go up as the assessments are finalised.”
“I also want to acknowledge here at Dadswell Bridge as well that there was a loss of a property. That’s really tough for those families and it also reverberates across the broader community.”
Meanwhile, around 60,000 homes across Victoria are still without power two days after storms smashed the state, down from 530,000 at its peak.
“There’s obviously still a way to go,” Allan said, reiterating that most outages were due to storm damage to the transmission system rather than any shortage of supply.
The majority of affected homes are in eastern Victoria and serviced by AusNet. The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action said as of 3pm Thursday, 59,951 were without power, all but 4,000 of whom were AusNet customers.
The company said the majority of customers will have their power restored on Saturday evening, with a “small number of customers in our hardest hit areas that will be without power heading into next week”.
They said 500 field crews and two helicopters had responded to more than 700 incidents on Thursday.
Bushfire devastation ‘could have been so much worse’
Allan thanked the Grampians community for following the advice issued on Tuesday afternoon to evacuate, saying Victorians had learned the lessons from the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, which killed 173 people across the state, injured 500 and destroyed thousands of homes.
“We are seeing great impact but it could have been so much worse,” she said. “Local communities heeded the warnings to go and get safe well ahead of the fire coming through.”
Victoria’s Emergency Management Commissioner, Rick Nugent, praised the work of firefighters, who he said had successfully protected many properties.
“You can see [the fire] come right up to the doorstep of many of them and then it’s gone around because of the great work that the firefighters have done,” Nugent said.
He assured the community that most people would be able to return to their properties to assess the damage as local roads reopen on Thursday afternoon.
“They’ll be able to then at least have a look at what has occurred and see what damage for those who have got their homes still,” Nugent said.
He said the Bellfield bushfire, which has burned through 2,736 hectares (6,760 acres) near Pomonal, was still burning on Thursday but it was hoped it would be extinguished before warmer weather returns to the region in coming days.
The alert level for the blaze has been reduced from “watch and act” to “advice level”.
Marc Sleeman, Pomonal resident and chief executive of the Grampians regional tourism board, was relieved to discover on Wednesday that his house had been saved.
“It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions for a lot of the community,” he said.
“Seeing some of the reports of the damage is quite scary. It’s almost apocalyptic. I’m bracing for how the kids are going to react as we drive back streets with so many houses gone.”
Sleeman, his wife and three children are staying with friends at nearby Stawell an hope to return to their property on Thursday evening. He said accommodation providers in the Grampians had received a lot of cancellations for the coming weeks.
“When the park is open and businesses are fully operational, we can start sending out that message that we’re open,” he said.
At a community meeting in Pomonal on Wednesday night, dozens of residents who evacuated waited to find out whether their homes were destroyed.
Walking up to emergency services personnel one at a time and showing their drivers licences, residents were privately told whether their house had survived the blaze.
The Northern Grampians shire council’s mayor, Rob Haswell, was at the meeting and said there were a “lot of broken hearts” but also an overwhelming sense of community spirit and being there for one another.
Haswell outlined the “harrowing” situation on the ground at Pomonal, which is a condensed area of about 400 people living on two- and three-acre blocks. The town has become a “toxic site”, he said, with aeroplanes flying over homes and dumping fire retardant, while power lines and trees were down across the community.
“You can’t just go back there because it’s not safe,” he said on Thursday.
“You can’t drink the water out of the tap [or] that’s come off the roof if it rains or in your tank.”
“I know it must be terribly harrowing for the people who want to go back to their houses, they feel they’ve been torn away from them – especially the ones that actually know that their houses have survived.”
There was an active warning for bushfire smoke in the air on Thursday and emergency services have warned of potential toxic gases.
Gunning said some buildings in the area are made of asbestos.
