Leave instantly: Urgent warning is issued as greater than 200 bushfires burn throughout Victoria and dramatic footage emerges of household being winched to security by helicopter
A raging bushfire tearing through rugged country 25km west of Walwa has sparked a fresh emergency warning in Victoria’s north‑east, with residents told to leave immediately in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The alert was issued just after midnight as the fast‑moving blaze roared towards Granya, Bungil, Burrowye, Walwa and nearby communities.
Authorities warned the fire was out of control, fuelled by dangerous conditions that could shift without warning.
By 6.30am the situation had worsened, and officials urged anyone still in the path of the inferno to take shelter immediately, saying it was now too late for a safe escape.
The crisis comes as fierce winds and scorching heat ignite more than 200 fires across Victoria, destroying at least 130 buildings, including dozens of homes, and leaving entire paddocks of crops and livestock wiped out.
In the early hours of Sunday, authorities also issued a rapid series of upgraded warnings for communities around Carlisle River, south of Colac, as the fire threat escalated.
Residents in Gellibrand, Kawarren, Barongarook West, Irrewillipe, Irrewillipe East, Chapple Vale, Charleys Creek, Kincaid, Pile Siding and Weeaproinah were all told to leave immediately as the blaze intensified and conditions deteriorated.
Fires continue to burn across Victoria, with fresh outbreaks in the Otways forcing the closure of part of the Great Ocean Road and putting Colac on alert.
Fierce winds and scorching heat ignite more than 200 fires across Victoria, destroying at least 130 buildings
Police footage released on Sunday shows the scale of destruction across the region
A family and their pet cat were rescued by Victorian Police on Saturday (pictured)
North-east of Melbourne, shifting winds drove the Longwood fire towards Bonnie Doon, heightening concern for Mansfield and surrounding communities.
Victoria Police launched a daring helicopter rescue on Saturday, swooping in to save two generations of a family, along with their treasured cat, after a ferocious bushfire tore through their isolated Caveat property earlier in the week.
Freshly released police footage captures the tense operation from above, showing the chopper descending into a landscape reduced to ash.
Pockets of smoke still curled from the blackened ground as officers brought the stranded family aboard.
The vision underscores the overwhelming scale of the disaster, revealing vast stretches of countryside left charred and lifeless.
More to come…
