In a few short hours around Ballarat there was a feeling of genuine dread in the area.
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The temperature was sky-rocketting into the mid-30s as wind gusts reached almost 100km/h per hour.
Emergency alerts were coming through faster than ever, making it impossible to keep track of what was happening.
See below our wrap of a hectic day for emergency services in the Ballarat region.
Mount Glasgow fire quelled after massive response
"It's very hard to get these things back once they've started, in these conditions," says Talbot farmer Tom Davies.
Mr Davies, whose family has lived in the central goldfields since the 1850s, was watching the Mt Glasgow fire as almost 50 CFA units and crews fought to bring a fire under control on Thursday.
The fire, which appears to have reignited after a back burn the previous day, spread from a property near Firmans Road and McCallums Creek up onto Mount Glasgow.
It spotted south ahead of the main body of fire up onto the side of the mountain.
The main fear of CFA members was that howling northerly winds, which were strong enough to knock trees over across the region, would push the fire into the nearby Dunach forest and perhaps push towards nearby Clunes.
Mr Davies brought his own fire engine, a former CFA unit, in case he was required to assist, but a strong contingent of CFA units from across the district and Ballarat plus aerial units brought the blaze under control relatively quickly.
Police blocked roads throughout the area as falling and fallen trees caused continuing mayhem for drivers.
One resident of nearby Fells Gully Road told The Courier she was leaving with her child as the smoke was causing her concern.
She said her husband was working to move machinery to safety on the property, but she had seen at least two haysheds destroyed by the fire.
The fire was brought under control in the early afternoon; an astonishing effort given the appalling conditions firefighting crews faced.
Wind gusts approaching 100km/h ripped limbs from trees, forcing council, SES, DELWP and other workers to spend effort clearing access roads for those fighting the blaze.
CFA District 15 operations manager Gavin Hope expressed his frustration that many of the fires were started by unattended burnoffs.
"We had numerous escapes today following burnoffs," Mr Hope said.
"People haven't properly extinguished them and they've gotten away... it's very frustrating."
"They've done an excellent job today in really tense conditions. There was a threatening wind change but good work was done by all to minimise the effect of the wind change."
Smaller fires surround Ballarat in a hectic few hours
Emergency services were called to over 15 separate bushfires across the region while the Mt Glasgow fire continued to burn.
While the vast majority of fires were caused by high winds re-igniting recent burnoffs, firefighters were forced to battle with what suspected to be a deliberately lit blaze in Streatham prior to 12pm.
After around 40 minutes the blaze was brought under control.
Elsewhere a serious fire towards Natte Yallock destroyed upwards of 30 hectares of grassland and put numerous properties under threat.
See where most of the bushfires occurred on the map below.
A similar situation was in store at a bushfire which took hours to get under control on the Bet Bet-Mt Hooghly Road, South of Dunolly.
This was contrasted with a number of other blazes, which were all brought under control in less than hour across the region.
Fires in Moyston, Skipton, Newbury, Smythes Creek, Timor, Trentham, Dereel and Miners Rest were all deemed to be small, controllable bushfires.
A blaze in Creswick was also brought under control quickly after being sparked by a tree falling onto power-lines.
Trees come crashing down as extreme winds hit the region
Just when it looked as though emergency crews had enough on their hands fires throughout the region, Mother Nature had another card to play.
The wind was already ferocious, but from 11am onwards, it stepped up to yet another gear.
Gusts in Balllarat reached as high as 95km/h, measured at the Ballarat aiport.
The State Emergency Service received 159 requests for assistance in the Ballarat region, including Creswick and Daylesford, with trees falling down in the city itself and further beyond.
Creswick in particular seemed to copped the full brunt of the gale-force wind, although there were reports of trees coming down all afternoon.
Many trees fell on houses, while there were also some unfortunate cars that sustained substantial damage.
Then, even faster than the wind speed climbed, it fell away.
Within about half an hour the wind dropped from above 90km/h to a far more manageable 43km/h.
At the same time, the temperature fell more than 10 degrees in 30 minutes.
Suddenly, the weather was almost back to normal in Ballarat and surrounds.
However, the recovery from the trail of damage will not be anywhere near as rapid.
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