{"id":31211,"date":"2015-12-26T15:11:56","date_gmt":"2015-12-26T04:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=31211"},"modified":"2019-04-16T13:31:16","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T03:31:16","slug":"intense-bushfire-hits-surf-coast-christmas-day-forcing-evacuations-takvera-vicfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/intense-bushfire-hits-surf-coast-christmas-day-forcing-evacuations-takvera-vicfires\/","title":{"rendered":"Intense #Bushfire hits Surf Coast Christmas Day forcing evacuations – @takvera #vicfires"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"20151225-bushfire-great-ocean-road\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We are already getting a taste of the future with climate change with record temperatures in December<\/a>, extreme bushfire alerts, and intense bushfires like the Separation Creek and Wye River bushfire causing town evacuations on the Surf Coast near Melbourne.<\/p>\n

On Christmas day BOM Tasmania reported in a tweet<\/a> “A sweltering 36 degrees in #Hobart today – the hottest Christmas Day on record! Cool change early tomorrow”. Temperatures in Adelaide reached 37 degrees, the hottest Christmas Day in 29 years, just short of the temperature of 37.3\u00b0C reached in 1986. <\/p>\n

In Victoria the Great Ocean Road was closed and settlements evacuated due to a major bushfire out of control on Christmas Day along Separation Creek and Wye Valley. Wye River, Allenvale, Kennett River, Grey River were all affected.<\/p>\n

It has now been confirmed by Premier Andrews on Boxing Day afternoon that 85 homes had been lost at Wye River and a further 18 at Separation Creek, bringing the total so far to 103, according to 9 News<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

These settlements have holiday houses which are very popular at this time of the year. One of the people affected is former Premier Steve Bracks. He planned to spend some time at his holiday house at Wye River, but this has now been disrupted. “It’s our favourite part of the world and we’re waiting to see what it looks like as soon as we can,” he said according<\/a> to The Age<\/em>. “It’s very difficult. We’re just like everyone else, waiting.” <\/p>\n

Tom Jacobs from Separation Creek told<\/a> the Geelong Advertiser<\/em>, \u201cWe were about to have lunch and then we saw smoke behind the property,\u201d Jacobs said. \u201cThe smoke kept on coming up bigger and bigger and then it turned into a war zone with four choppers bombing directly overheard. It had all been perfectly fine and then it went dark and it was like volcano skies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A cool change with rain moved through overnight. Initially houses in Lorne were thought to be in danger as the wind changed direction with the cool change, that might push the fire towards the town. Evacuation warnings were issued for the small coastal settlements and for Lorne.<\/p>\n

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\nSeparation Creek. #vicfires<\/a> #bushfires<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/CIEBNNp1K9<\/a><\/p>\n

— Tom Jacobs (@TomPJacobs) December 25, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n