FIRES tore through the district on Tuesday as the CFA issued an unusually early total fire ban and severe fire warning.
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Usually these types of warnings would only come when peak fire season arrives in December.
Residents at Dean, Dereel and Gordon were advised to make plans in case the fires in their towns got out of control.
The CFA advised residents advised that although their homes were not under threat, they needed to be prepared to cope in case the situation changed.
Operations Officer Western District 15 Anthony Pearce said it was “not normal” to have such severe fire conditions so early in the year.
“It wouldn’t be the earliest on record but it’s not what we’re expecting,” he said.
He said the conditions were a concern for the summer ahead.
“We’ve been saying for a while it’s going to be a long, dry summer,” he said.
“We remind everyone to be vigilant and be prepared.”
Mr Pearce said it looked like people were obeying the total fire ban, but Ballarat CFA was receiving many calls from previous burns that had continued putting off smoke.
“A lot of the fires (yesterday) have been as a result of burnoffs,” he said.
“As we’ve been warning people all day, these burnoffs need to be monitored because the heat will be remaining in previous burnoffs and the weather today will expose them.
“If people need to take burning-off preparations, then they need to do so in a way that can be controlled.”
Mr Pearce said while no burnoff restrictions had yet been implemented, he said that given the conditions, they’d “be coming on quite soon”.
Weather conditions were dangerous on Tuesday with temperatures pushing 30 degrees and winds up to 55km/h tending north to northwesterly.
Conditions will ease off from Wednesday with a high of 15 degrees and winds reducing in speed to 20-30km/h, with a low to moderate fire danger.
Emergency personnel recently held a pre-season briefing in Ballarat with CFA Grampians Regional Commander Mick Harris predicting this week’s blazes.
Mr Harris had warned that with an El Niño event happening, the Pacific Ocean was warming and that would lead to a higher fire season that would also come in earlier in Victoria.