FORTY-four homes and building structures were lost in Pomonal after lightning strikes caused multiple fires in the Grampians National Park on Tuesday, a day forecast with a catastrophic fire danger rating for the Wimmera.

A major fire started west of the town and, with another significant outbreak to the north near Dadswells Bridge, it required a considerable firefighting response from the CFA.

By the afternoon, three fires raged within three kilometres of Halls Gap with the major front to the east of Lake Bellfield believed to have burnt around 2200 hectares.

Major alerts were issued for the town along with Pomonal, Wartook and Roses Gap earlier in the afternoon advising people to leave the area, but just hours later residents were advised to take shelter as it was too late to leave.

Emergency relief centres were set up in Stawell and Ararat.

Strong northerly winds changed to south westerly, hampering fire emergency crews’ efforts who formed a convoy between Dunkeld and Ararat as they headed to the fires’ fronts.

Country Fire Authority District 5 commander, Rainer Kiessling confirmed multiple strikes teams were sent from District 5, each comprising five appliances (trucks) and a command vehicle, with at least 25 volunteers per strike team, in support of the fires at Pomonal.

“I believe our crews were in Pomonal when the fires rolled out of the hills and they played a role in stopping them,” he said.

“District 5 crews were sent there with the objective of asset protection, and suppression of the fire, as it came out of the Grampians and into the farmland and started to hit Pomonal.

“There was a wind change about 4pm from a north wind to south westerly - that certainly increased the fire conditions with winds gusting up to 70 kilometres (per hour) in some parts on the fire ground which pushed the fire out of the hills and impacted the town of Pomonal.”

Commander Kiessling confirmed multiple structures were destroyed by fire in Pomonal with a final impact assessment yet to be conducted.

“FFMV (Forest Fire Management Victoria) and CFA continue to monitor the fire ground and secure the edges with much of the fire burning in inaccessible country on the flanks of the Grampians,” he said.

“It will be weeks before they fully contain that - we just hope that fire conditions don’t get worse in the coming weeks - it’s possible that fire can jump containment lines and continue burning in the Grampians if fire conditions worsen again.”

Further north, three more fires were burning near Mt Stapylton which were reported to have destroyed around 4400 hectares with a Leave Immediately warning issued taking in Dadswells Bridge, Laharum Wartook and Roses Gap.

Around the same time, multiple CFA appliances including aircraft were deployed from Casterton to attend a fire out of control at Glendenning near Balmoral.

Lowan MP, Emma Kealy kept up to date on the fire front through Horsham’s Incident Control Centre and expressed gratitude to everyone assisting and supporting the community through this natural disaster.

“(Especially) those fire crews that worked throughout Tuesday night to contain the three fire-fronts across the two major fire complexes near Pomonal and Dadswells Bridge,” she said.

“There has been significant loss of stock, fence lines and sheds.

“It will be a massive cleanup.

“Roads remain closed and could be closed for some time.

“Trees along roadsides are actively burning in the Pomonal area which present a risk to entry. This has been incredibly difficult for many Pomonal residents who don’t know if their home remains standing or not.

“To quell the rumours, the historic church has been saved.

“The Western Highway has massive burned-out redgums blocking the roadway - in some areas laying across all three lanes (in overtaking sections).”

A Ballarat CFA tanker and five members that attended the fire at Pomonal as part of the Eureka Group Strike Team sustained minor injuries after being involved in a burnover incident on Tuesday afternoon.

A burnover event occurs when a fire overtakes personnel or equipment where there is no escape routes or safety zones.

The crew arrived in Pomonal at about 4pm to protect homes impacted by the fire, when the wind suddenly changed not long after.

Ballarat CFA member, Jarrod Pegg said the blaze went from slow moving and predictable to increasing in height several metres at a time.

“We were attacking the fire and the rapid change in wind caused a significant fire wall to approach our truck which came over us while we were still out of the truck,” he said.

“At that point in time I enacted our burnover protocol at CFA, ensured my crew were in the truck safely, then radioed through a mayday call to our strike team leader to inform them of our situation; from there other units from our strike team approached and assisted in our safety.

“We had little time to act to the situation but were able to get in the truck safely with minimal injuries.

“Fortunately, our training kicked in - we train for this type of activity, we don’t like to see it and hope it never happens, but we still train for it every season,” Jarrod said.

Mr Pegg said a burnover was a situation no CFA member wanted to be in, but their training guided them.

“A burnover is what we try to avoid, no one wants to be in.

“But all across CFA and fire services we practice it. I am comfortable with the training I have received. I had no concerns about what was happening yesterday.”

He credited the success not only to the training, but his team too.

“All I had to do was inform my team we were going into a burnover and didn’t have to think twice about what was happening next,” Mr Pegg said.

“Everyone played a part in the protection and safety of ourselves.”

After receiving medical clearance, the strike team continued fighting the fires. 

Meanwhile, across the state, CitiPower and Powercor crews worked to restore power to about 107,000 customers as the severe storm fronts pushed through the state on Tuesday afternoon.

A combination of extreme temperatures, strong winds and thousands of lightning strikes caused damage to poles, wires and other electrical infrastructure.

By Thursday, Emergency Management Victoria downgraded the fire threat for all the fires in the Grampians region but advised residents to stay informed.

The Halls Gap Zoo was safe from the fire but closed to the public until yesterday.

Grampians Wimmera Mallee Water advised Pomonal residents to not drink tap water until further notice and that they could fill bottles and containers with clean drinking water at the Pomonal General Store.

Parks Victoria advised that the Grampians National Park is closed and for visitors to not try and travel to Pomonal or other fire affected areas, with access for residents only.