A resident in Buxton confirmed cold ash began to fall over the township early on Friday afternoon, but was hopeful it wouldn’t increase before the wind changed direction.
At around 2.30pm on Friday 9 January, the resident told Star Mail that cold embers were descending but that spotting was not likely as far out as Buxton.
“It is dark, definitely an orange glow. There are cold embers coming down here, so they’re not warm. The fire is not predicted to come our direction,” they said.
“Cold embers, basically, it means that the air hasn’t withheld enough temperature to keep them hot for a distance.”
The Maroondah Highway, northbound between Mckenzie Avenue, Healesville and Anderson Lane, Narbethong, was closed at 3.42pm and remained in place over the weekend.
One major issue, however, the resident said was the water supply, with Goulburn Valley Water issuing an urgent notice that the drinking water could not be maintained.
Goulburn Valley Water’s notification at 2.15pm read: “The Buxton Water Treatment Plant cannot treat enough drinking water to meet current demand.
“We estimate that there is about four hours of water supply left in the system. You must limit water use to essential needs only to help us try to maintain a supply of water.
“As a precaution, you should reserve drinking water. You should ensure you have at least 10 litres of drinking water available for each person in your household for 48 hours.
“Use the bathtub, tanks, buckets and any large storage containers available to reserve drinking water.”
The resident said a community safety briefing in late December advised people to have a supply of bottled water on hand for situations of this kind, but the main message was to leave early.
“Quite a lot of the town left yesterday (Thursday). I’m not seeing many residents still here. The highway has been quite busy, with a constant flow of cars leading towards Melbourne.
“It has settled down probably in the last half an hour. So I think everyone who’s going to leave pretty much has.
“The Rangers went through the campsites everywhere, up near Eildon and up at Alexandra and all those surrounding towns yesterday morning and yesterday afternoon (8 Jan), and started forcefully evacuating people, so it’s pretty quiet here.”
Healesville’s Queens Park and Don Reserve were set up as evacuation zones. Lilydale High School opened a relief centre late on Friday, with the Lilydale Fire Brigade also opening its doors to evacuees for a reprieve.
The resident did say that, given the lack of water supply, “CFA wants people in the area who are not trained and well supplied with their own water supply to leave”.
“Especially with the Spur, the biggest concern is when people get distressed, and they get on the Spur, accidents happen, and then that’s our only exit. At the moment, we can’t exit in any other direction.
“The more people that leave now before it gets dark tonight, in particular, which is when fear levels go up, even though Buxton’s safety level will probably actually get safer once this cool change comes through, because it’s going to head away from us, but dark seems to make people more scared because the sky gets more scary looking.
“So, particularly those who are elderly or have young children or parents, should probably be leaving now.”
At the time of the interview, the resident said while the cold ash did seem to be increasing, the wind had stopped slightly, although this wasn’t a sign of safety “because the fire is big enough that it’s actually caused its own weather system”.
