By Nicole Williams
THE Berwick CFA Captain is warning residents to maintain their vigilance after six deliberately lit fires threatened homes in Pakenham Upper last week.
Captain Alan Boyd said Berwick and Harkaway were feeling the heat and were prime for a challenging fire.
“The bush and pasture in the areas north and south of Berwick township could cause considerable headaches for fire-fighters if a fire developed under these conditions,” he said.
“It would give crews a lot of challenges, not unlike the fires which threatened Pakenham last week.”
Hot weather and no rain has seen vegetation and grassy areas dry considerably.
“Locally in the Berwick and Harkaway areas summer is being felt with very warm to hot temperatures and no recent or forecast significant rainfall. This has resulted in accelerated drying out of vegetation and grasslands are now almost 100 per cent cured,” Mr Boyd said.
“CFA crews are on high alert and are particularly concerned about fires developing on hot days which may be fanned by strong winds.”
CFA crews, including Berwick, were called to Pakenham Upper just after 3pm on Thursday to find six fires burning along Pakenham and Army roads.
Police and the CFA Fire Investigation Squad are investigating the deliberately fires, which also sparked a number of spot fires.
Incident Controller Steven Hicks said crews, from as far away as Wonthaggi and Frankston, quickly got five of the fires under control but one spiralled out of control.
“There were six in six different places down Army Road and Pakenham Road,” he said.
“We caught five quickly but one just got away because it was in an inaccessible spot.”
Mr Boyd said Berwick and Harkaway residents should be careful during the high-risk season and be alert for suspicious activity.
“The CFA is urging all residents to be particularly careful with fire and to be aware that fire restrictions are in force and there are strong penalties for not complying with them,” he said.
“Police are currently following up on all suspicious fires in the area and there have been a number of charges laid in recent weeks in relation to arson offences.”
Although fires were not in the Berwick area, the local fire-fighters have been kept busy with the Pakenham Upper fires and crews have also been deployed to the Gippsland fires.
“In addition to looking after their local area, fire crews from Berwick are being deployed along with other fire-fighters from Casey and Cardinia to the large blaze which started last week in Aberfeldy and threatened Heyfield and surrounding towns over the weekend,” Mr Boyd said.
“Berwick’s four wheel drive 3000-litre tanker is currently working from Heyfield and local fire-fighters have been involved in some intense fire-fighting action as they’ve joined the battle to try to stop the spread of this fire.”
