“I normally say, when I’m giving briefings, that this is to make you alert but not alarmed — tomorrow is a different day. A really different day,” Mr Murphy said.
“Catastrophic conditions, to us, means that the fire is uncontrollable, it is unpredictable, and it will move. And that’s tomorrow’s conditions.”
At 6pm on Thursday, January 8, the Seymour Sports and Aquatic Centre was filled with locals, firefighters and emergency services personnel, all in an effort to ensure that residents in emergency zones acted before it was too late.
“(The fire has) travelled a significant distance today, and as we speak, there are communities that are on fire. Ruffy, Tarcombe and others. It’s spreading, and it’s not slowing,” Mr Murphy said.
The importance of staying up to date with emergency warnings was emphasised throughout the meeting, with community members urged to make decisions while they still had time.
Mr Murphy said the more than 400 firefighters and 14 firefighting aircraft that were on the scene on Thursday, January 8 struggled to control the blaze, meaning that the Catastrophic Fire Danger Rating declared for Friday, January 9 suggested it would a difficult fight.
“We laid retardant lines that were burnt through, we dropped lots of water and the fire just looked at it and went, nup,” he said, with a shrug.
“Tomorrow, with the weather conditions, we might find ourselves in a place where aircraft cannot operate safely.
“Tomorrow we will find ourselves in a place where firefighters cannot operate safely and access fire grounds.”
The advice on Thursday, January 8 was to leave by 7am the following morning if you are within the emergency zone.
Mr Murphy said, while firefighters will continue to try to control the blaze, there may be challenges that emergency services won’t be able to overcome.
“We’ll continue to work the edges, we’ll continue to work what we can, but the bits in the middle – there’s not much we can do about those tomorrow,” he said.
“I can’t stress strongly enough the difficulty of tomorrow. Mother Nature has a go sometimes, tomorrow she’s having a go.
“So, please, that shared responsibility is critical. We’ll do what we can for you, please make your own decisions and make good ones.”
Stay up to date with incidents and warnings in your area by visiting emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/
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