Monday February 25: The Victoria Valley Complex fire covers an area of approximately 35,600 hectares and has been going for 11 days. There are now containment lines around the full perimeter of the fire. Significant smoke from the Victoria Gap area is being generated from continuing work by fire crews in the area.
Crews have been working on various areas of the fire and continue to patrol,
consolidate and strengthen containment lines around the perimeter of the fire. DSE
and CFA crews will continue to patrol the fire with support from aircraft.
Fire activity in the Cassidy’s Gap area measures 30ha and has not increased in size over the last few days. Crews are being air-lifted into the area to construct and consolidate containment lines around this fire.
Fire fighting resources deployed to the fire will vary according to weather conditions.
Availability of aircraft depends on demand from other parts of the state. Today there are 307 personnel, 101 firefighting vehicles, and 12 aircraft working in the area. Helicopters have been used to take specialised Firefighters to access steep country at Cassidy Gap to strengthen containment lines and patrol fire activity. Hover Exiting is a specialist technique used by highly trained DSE staff for transferring firefighters and equipment from a hovering helicopter safely to the ground. Hover Exit crew can take direct action on the fire, call in firebombing aircraft or may even prepare a helipad nearby to enable additional DSE firefighters
and equipment to be brought in.
103 significant Aboriginal places are located within the Grampians- Victoria
Valley Complex Fire Harm/damage to the registered Aboriginal places is unknown until inspections can be completed. the same is true for the areas where small mammals are being monitored, and various orchid sites. The fire has not threatened the Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby release site, but there are contingency plans in place should this change.
For further information on these fires visit the CFA website on www.cfa.vic.gov.au or www.dse.vic.gov.au/fires.
(Excerpts from the daily update from the Parks Office in Halls Gap. It will be refreshed when there are any significant changes).