Urgent search for family missing after Victorian bushfire: Two adults and a child vanish as inferno rages destroying homes
A family in Victoria is missing after a terrifying bushfire ripped through their town amid catastrophic fire conditions across the state.
A fire at Longwood, 150km north of Melbourne, has been raging since Wednesday night, and wind and high temperatures are set to keep it going throughout Friday.
Officers are searching for a man, woman and child who were advised by fire services on Thursday to take shelter as it was too late to leave safely during the blaze.
‘Later the that afternoon, those same fire service representatives reattended that area to see the house,’ Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Bob Hill told reporters on Friday.
‘They saw those three people standing in front of had been completely destroyed.
‘Those three people remain unaccounted for. Those three people, we do not know at this point of time where they may be.
‘That particular area in Longwood East where that house has been destroyed is still a hot spot, and we’re yet to be able to put the strike teams from the fire service into that area to conduct an assessment for us.’
He said fire service teams are prioritising their efforts to go back to the home to ‘hopefully identify and find those three people safe and well’.
There were 30 active fires burning across Victoria on Friday morning
The out-of-control blaze near Longwood, 150km north of Melbourne, has razed more than 35,000 hectares
The out-of-control blaze in Longwood has razed more than 35,000 hectares, while flames near Walwa and Mount Lawson along the Victoria-NSW border have burnt over 17,000 hectares.
Emergency warnings remain in place for thousands of residents in northeast Victoria and around the town of Longwood, as at least 10 houses and a school have been lost.
Country Fire Authority captain George Noye, who lives in the regional town of Ruffy, near the Longwood fire, has described the destruction.
‘It’s like a bomb has gone off, we got smashed by the fire spots,’ he said.
He added that a member of his crew is in hospital with third-degree burns to his hands.
Authorities say Friday could pose ‘catastrophic’ conditions for the Longwood region as the state faces its worst fire threat since the Black Summer fires in 2019 and 2020.
‘It’s all going to be a very bad day,’ Little Yarra Country Fire Authority captain Peter Cookson said.
‘We all prepare for these days, and if nothing happens, that is a win. But you can’t say nothing will happen – with these things, they can all start from a spark.’
Emergency warnings remain in place for thousands of residents in northeast Victoria
Some Victorians have been told it is too late to leave as a bushfire engulfs their regions
Paramedics and first responders in catastrophic fire danger areas will be withdrawn on Friday and will only be redeployed to these zones for serious or life-threatening illnesses, Ambulance Victoria said.
It comes as a major heatwave sweeps across Australia’s southeast, with forecasted temperatures to reach 43°C in Melbourne and up to 47°C in parts of inland Victoria on Friday.
The high temperatures are expected to affect the ACT and NSW, where a total fire ban has been declared in the eastern Riverina, southern Riverina, southern slopes and Monaro alpine regions for Friday.
Temperatures will not be quite as high in NSW, with Sydney set to reach a maximum of 33°C and Canberra expected to hit a high of 39°C.
But things are likely to worsen in the harbour city on Saturday with temperatures expected to reach 42°C and an even hotter forecast for the western suburbs.
NSW Ambulance chief superintendent Steve Vaughan urged residents to begin preparing for the hot conditions and stay cool, hydrated, and indoors during the hottest part of the day.
‘Heatwaves put real pressure on your body, with consecutive days of relentless heat causing stress that builds up over time,’ he said.
