“I am reluctant to engage on budget issues when communities are still under threat, but the premier and CFA board statements are directly contradicted by the CFA’s own annual reports,” O’Brien told this masthead.
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“It’s there in black and white that the budget has reduced over successive years. Unfortunately, we don’t have the most recent figures because the government has failed to table the CFA annual report for 2024-25.”
A government spokesperson said annual budgets for the CFA fluctuated according to fire activity, with additional funding provided in response to significant bushfire events. This year, an additional $11.6 million was provided ahead of the fire season to fund a “Get Fire Ready” information campaign and secure access to more bulk water.
Heffernan said the information campaign had contributed to saving properties and lives. “Back in spring we went to the government and said we are in for a big one,” he said.
United Firefighters Union boss Peter Marshall said the state’s ageing truck fleet, which includes 230 vehicles more than 31 years old and two-thirds of all vehicles past their used-by-date, had created an additional crisis.
On Monday night, state authorities confirmed the deadly Longwood fire was started last Wednesday by a trailer throwing sparks on the Hume Freeway.
As temperatures nudged 40 degrees, the sparks ignited nearby bushland near Nagambie.
A State Control Centre spokesperson said the investigation was in its early stages meaning more details could not be released.
More than 350 structures have been confirmed as destroyed in Victoria’s ongoing bushfire emergency, with authorities warning the state faces more high-risk conditions in coming weeks.
There are more than 20 active bushfires – 12 of them classified as “major” – burning across the state, which have so far torn through 395,000 hectares and private and public land and killed large numbers of livestock.
CFA members Tyrone and Raewyn Rice at what remains of their home, which was destroyed in the Harcourt blaze.Credit: Jason South
Some of the biggest blazes, one at Walwa in the north and two in the Otway Ranges, are both still rated at emergency level.
Grants of up to $52,000 are available to householders who have lost their homes in the fires and were not insured, with payments expected to be available from Friday, the state government confirmed on Monday.
The premier said 440 “personal hardship payments” – of up to $1000 per adult and up to $400 per child – had already been made.
Allan also offered her condolences to the man who died in the Longwood fire.
The body of Maxwell Hobson was found 100 metres from a burnt-out vehicle that had run off the road in Gobur, between Yarck and Merton, on Sunday.
“It’s a devastating impact, and it’s a devastating reminder of the tragedy that fire can bring to any community, to any household, to any doorstep, particularly on those difficult, catastrophic and extreme weather days,” Allan said.
“My thoughts and condolences are with that person’s family, their loved ones, the broader community too.”
Allan was speaking from Natimuk, a tiny town 300 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, where 16 homes have been confirmed lost to the blazes. That figure was revised down from the 30 previously estimated by aerial surveillance.
The premier said the Victorian Bushfire Appeal would be accepting donations from Tuesday.
Firefighters at the edge of the Otways bushfire. Credit: Belmont Fire Brigade
“Every dollar raised through this appeal will go back into providing support for fire affected communities, and how that funding is allocated will be guided by the advice we get from fire-affected communities,” she said.
Emergency Management Commissioner Tim Wiebusch welcomed calmer weather following last week’s catastrophic fire conditions.
“But that doesn’t mean that the risk is over,” he warned. “We still have three emergency warnings … along with three watch and act warnings.”
In better news, Wiebusch confirmed that three of the dangerous fires, those at Streatham, Mount Mercer and Natimuk – all in the state’s west – had been contained.
A home destroyed by fire in Ruffy.Credit: Eddie Jim
But Heffernan warned of the potential for more hazardous days in a fire season that still has many more weeks to come.
“I can see that it is likely to be another heating event towards the end of January, to the extent that’s yet to be determined, but I guess the indication there’s been a lot of fire in the landscape,” he said.
“Much work will be done between now and then to contain these fires.”
Underlining the scale of the task, Barongarook CFA captain Steve Brooke, who has been battling the Otway fires, said on Monday that they were the largest blazes in the area since Ash Wednesday in 1983.
Resident Robbie Cumming (right) is comforted after seeing the ruins of his home near Yarck.Credit: Jason South
The fatal Longwood fire, which has destroyed 150 structures, was downgraded to watch and act on Sunday afternoon, but residents of Yarck, Ruffy, Longwood and surrounds were urged to cut travel in the fire-affected area.
In the Ravenswood fire, 47 homes and three business structures have been lost.
Another 12 structures, as well as grazing and cropping land, have burnt in Yarroweyah, and more than 25 buildings have been lost in Streatham.
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In Walwa, near the Victoria-NSW border, a large fire is still burning uncontrolled after ripping down a 10,000-hectare pine plantation, as well as four structures.
The regions of Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat, the South West and Wimmera continue to experience poor air quality, while it is very poor in the Mallee, Northern Country, North East, and West and South Gippsland.
A total fire ban remains in place for the North East and North Central districts. There is a high fire danger rating in the Mallee, Wimmera, North Central, North East and South West districts.
On Monday evening, 40 bushfire warnings were still in place around the state, mostly at watch and act level.
But residents of Tallangatta Valley, Bullioh, Koetong, Shelley, Berringama, Lucyvale and surrounding areas in the state’s north were warned on Monday afternoon to take shelter from the Walwa fire.
Those in surrounding areas are warned to monitor changing conditions.
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