YOU YANGS CLOSED AFTER FIRE
NEARBY visitors were evacuated from the You Yangs yesterday as waterbombing aircraft were called in to extinguish a fire.
Roads were blocked as firefighters tackled the fire, which took off in difficult terrain about 2.30pm and burnt through grass and scrub near Flinders Peak.
Forest Fire Management Victoria incident controller Tony Morris said visitors had quickly fled the area and there were no reports of any injuries.
“We had reports of some people that were fairly close (to the fire),” Mr Morris said.
“The park was fairly busy being school holidays.”
Mr Morris said late yesterday there had been no decision to reopen lower sections of the park today.
The main walking tracks were likely to be closed for at least this morning, and would be considered in conjunction with progress on blacking out the fire.
“The fire size is only ... just under a hectare, so it’s not a large area,” he said.
“We believe we’ll be able to black it out sufficiently (and) that we should be able to open the park and the whole area by the end of the week, while we maintain some patrols on the site during those hot days.”
Mr Morris advised people to check the Parks Victoria website or call 131 963 to see whether the park has reopened.
The Country Fire Authority received numerous calls about the fire, including from a distressed family.
Eighteen fire trucks were on the scene before the blaze was deemed under control about 3.45pm.
The fire was burning towards Ford’s Proving Ground, which is contained in the foothills to the north of the peaks.
Mr Morris said he was appreciative of park users who reported the fire and evacuated quickly.
Smoke was visible right across the other side of the bay in the Bellarine Peninsula.
Fire investigators are determining the cause of the blaze.