[Victoria]: Premier and Emergency Services Press Conference

[Owen]

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At the State Control Centre in Melbourne, the Premier, Jacinta Allan would gather for a press conference on evening of the 6th of February with the Chief Officer of the Country Fire Authority, the Chief Fire Officer of Forest Fire Management Victoria and the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Christine Nixon.
The Premier would begin.

"Good evening,

Can I just start by acknowledging the incredibly hard work of the entire team behind me, including everybody here within the State Control Centre and all the paid and volunteer firefighters across the state who are now assembling en masse to defend this state tomorrow. Tomorrow we are facing conditions which are unprecedented, these conditions will be worse than conditions seen on Black Friday in 1939 and on Ash Wednesday in 1983. It's just as bad a day as you can imagine and on top of that the state is tinder-dry. People need to exercise real common sense tomorrow. This is expected to be the worst day of fire conditions in the history of the state. "Catastrophic" fire conditions are forecasted for every single fire rating district in Victoria with the exception of the Mallee which is forecasted at "Extreme". A total fire ban is in place for the entire state of Victoria. Let me be very clear, if a fire starts tomorrow and is able to get hold, it will not be contained. I urge all Victorians in bushfire prone areas to begin preparing now. Prepare your properties, prepare your belongings, prepare your family, prepare your way out. If you do not do these things and a bushfire threatens your property, the likelihood of death is high. Whilst nearly half of the entire volunteer workforce of the Country Fire Authority is now deployed and operational, you should not expect that a CFA fire truck will be on your doorstep should a bushfire threaten your property. Resources will be stretched thinned tomorrow if there are multiple fires burning across the state. I will also mention that tomorrow will see extreme temperatures, within the high forties for a lot of Victoria and 46 for Melbourne. Please, keep yourself cool, take care and check on your loved ones. Whilst it is a Saturday and I won't need to issue a directive about schools, I urge all workplaces and businesses that do not have air conditioning to close tomorrow. I will hand over to the Chief Officer now."

The Country Fire Authority Chief Officer would take the podium.

"Thank you Premier,

At the moment we have nearly half of the CFA's volunteer workfore deployed and operational across the state. All CFA captains have been notified about the incoming threat and I have urged them all to prepare their stations and themselves and their volunteers for action tomorrow. We will see temperatures rise to the high forties across Victoria combined with hot northerly winds. If a fire takes hold tomorrow, it may be fast and it may be ferocious and most likely would burn in a south to southeasterly direction. However later in the day we are expecting a cold front to move through. It will bring temperature relief but it will bring the worst case scenario for fires, a wind change. A fire front that may only be 3 kilometres wide would find itself becoming 50 kilometres wide after burning in the same direction the whole day. We are in almost uncharted territory when it comes to the conditions we are facing tomorrow. I urge all Victorians to head the advice and to not put our CFA volunteers in a precarious situation tomorrow. We will work to save as many properties and lives as possible, but poor planning and poor actions may lead to our firefighters having to put their lives on the line to save yours. I will hand over to Forest Fire Management Victoria now."

The Chief Fire Officer of Forest Fire Management Victoria would speak.

"Forest Fire Management Victoria is currently fighting two blazes at the moment within protected areas of Victoria, one in the Bunyip State Park and one in the Alpine National Park near Dargo. Members of the community within South Gippsland will notice an increase in smoke from the Bunyip State Park fire, but I wish to reassure the public that that fire remains contained within the park. Our firefighters are working on both of those fires and the Bunyip State Park fire is now contained. The Dargo fire is not contained but it is burning in very rugged and inaccessible terrain, which means whilst our firefighters are finding it hard to get to the fire, it is not directly threatening any towns or property. Tomorrow all fire towers within the state of Victoria will have members of Forest Fire Management Victoria manning them and will be working the entire day to spot fires which may appear within the state. All national parks, state forests, state parks and any other protected areas under the management of Parks Victoria will be closed tomorrow to all members of the public. Anybody camping in any of those parks should leave tonight. I will hand over to the Chief Commissioner now."

The Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Christine Nixon, would speak.

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"Victoria Police will be on high alert tomorrow for suspected arsonists. Already we have seen a fire within the Delburn area of South Gippsland start late last week due to the actions of an arsonist. If you are planning on a committing an act of arson tomorrow, know this. We will catch you and you will be brought to justice. Anybody that deliberately threatens the lives of Victorians will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law. There will be no tolerance for lighting fires tomorrow, either delibrately or ignorantly. There is a total fire ban in place for the entire state of Victoria and no body should be lighting any fires which are not consistent with this ban. Victoria Police will also be out enforcing road closures across the state in relation to fire activity. I urge all Victorians to avoid driving on roads outside of built up areas tomorrow unless absolutely necessary. Roads may be closed at short notice, fire authorities need to move around the state. If you do not need to travel anywhere, the simple message is: don't. We will also have zero tolerance for bushfire tourism. If you do not need to be in a bushfire impacted area, do not be there."

 

[Owen]

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At 10pm on the 7th of February, the Premier would call a press conference with the Police Chief Commissioner and the CFA Chief Officer.

"I just want to begin by saying that, this is still an evolving situation and we are absolutely not out of the woods yet. The wind change has moved through and temperatures have dropped but we are seeing an extremely precarious fire situation on the ground, particularly with the fires in the Kinglake and Marysville areas and the one in South Gippsland. Our firefighters are working extremely hard at the moment to protect lives and property. However, sadly, I can confirm that we do have some fatalities."

The Premier would pause for a moment before carrying on.

"The information we have at the moment is sketchy, there is limited communication with what is occurring on the fire ground. From what we understand, the townships of Kinglake and Marysville have been heavily impacted. We also know that a fire has destroyed many homes on the outskirts of my hometown of Bendigo and we have an evolving situation in the South Gippsland near Churchill and Yarram. Buildings have also been lost in the Bunyip State Park fire. There are also many other fires around the state, approximately over 400 smaller and spot fires. We also have a new fire burning in the Beechworth area. The fires at Horsham, Coleraine and Weerite are now contained and I have spoken with the Mayors of the Rural City of Horsham and the Southern Grampians Shire and we can confirm that some property has been lost in Horsham and Coleraine, particularly to note is the Horsham Golf Course clubhouse. There has been no reported property damage at Weerite.

As for the other fires, there is significant property lost, however these are evolving situations and we do not know the full extent. We believe it could be in the hundreds for the fire to the north of Melbourne and also many in the South and West Gippsland. We already know that many have been lost in Bendigo. I will now pass to the Chief Commissioner to update us on the fatalities."

Christine Nixon would take the podium.

"Thank you Premier. As of 10pm this evening, we have confirmed 15 fatalities from the fire. 14 of these have been as a result of the Kilmore East fire and 1 is from the Bendigo fire. I will start with the Bendigo fire, we have an unidentified male who sadly died in his home in the Bendigo suburb of Long Gully. The circumstances surrounding his death are still under investigation. Of the 14 lost in the Kilmore East fire, 6 have been lost in Kinglake, 4 in Wandong, 3 in Strathewen and 1 in Clonbinane. Again, our officers and ambulance crews are finding it difficult to reach these areas due to the current fire and the circumstances surrounding their deaths are still unknown and their identities have not been confirmed. These deaths have been reported to us from local police in Kinglake and the other townships. I want to make it clear though, we expect this number to rise. Given the scale of destruction and the ferocity in which these fires had past through these townships, we are estimating the number of people to have died to be significantly more than this though I will not be speculating on the numbers."

The Chief Officer of the CFA would take the podium.

"Firefighters at the moment are responding to over 400 fires across the state. The biggest fires at this stage are the Kilmore East and Murrundindi Mill fires which are burning parallel to each other to the north of Melbourne. We also have significant fires in the South Gippsland, Bendigo and in the Bunyip State Park. We also now battling a fire near Beechworth. Most of the fires in Western Victoria have now been contained, including the Horsham, Coleraine, Weerite, Redesdale and also I have now been updated that the Bendigo fire is contained. The threat predominantly remains for eastern part of Victoria, though with the wind change now moving away from the state, we suspect the bulk of the damage caused by these fires has now occurred and now the goal is assessment and recovery. We believe that there are many townships which have been near or completely destroyed, though I will not speculate on exactly which ones these are until we can get in there and do a proper assessment. The Kilmore East fire has by far done the most damage and that is why we have 14 fatalities confirmed so far there, particularly in and around the town of Kinglake. We have also been in contact with our partners in other states and we can confirm that strike teams are being assembled from New South Wales Rural Fire Service, the South Australian Country Fire Service, the Tasmania Fire Service and the ACT Rural Fire Service. A strike team from New South Wales is already making its way to the Beechworth fire. We are also putting out an appeal to our international partners."

A reporter would ask a question to the Premier.

"Premier, have you been in contact with the federal government?"

The Premier would speak.

"I have and they have offered the full resources of the federal government to Victoria, including an ADF deployment which is being prepared and the Prime Minister will be flying into Melbourne tomorrow."