Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs Meanwhile, locals in the Grampians were warned the 30,000-hectare fire near Halls Gap could burn “for weeks” in rugged terrain. Firefighting efforts would now focus on consolidating containment lines ahead of skyrocketing temperatures expected on Boxing Day.Residents of Pomonal and Lake Fyans were also encouraged to leave their homes on Saturday due to the bushfire, which has closed the Grampians National Park during the busy summer period.SMS alerts were sent to residents in Halls Gap advising them to leave, and police were doorknocking in the town to spread the message.Emergency services held community meetings in Ararat, Stawell and Pomonal on Saturday.Speaking in Ararat on Saturday morning, Emergency Management Victoria incident controller Mark Gunning said Friday was “an extremely bad day” as warm weather and strong southern winds turned the Grampians blaze into a high-energy inferno.“And high-energy fires, as firefighters, we can’t do anything about that; nature is so powerful, we really tinker at the edges,” he said.Gunning said Friday’s huge smoke plume – which was indicative of the fire intensifying and eventually drifted over Melbourne – meant it had sometimes been too dangerous for firefighting aircraft to try to douse the fire from above. “And we rely on that so much,” he said.In Pomonal on Saturday afternoon, Gunning described the smoke plume as acting “like a big vacuum clearer”. “It gets driven by the upper winds, and it drags the fire along,” he said.Glenn Rudolph from Forest Fire Management Victoria told the Ararat meeting that two tongues of the fire had started to wrap around Lake Bellfield, just south of Halls Gap.Loading“The dryness in the landscape is causing it to run faster than what we’d expect and the models suggest,” he said.Rudolph said the northernmost spot fire was “being bombed basically off the face of the earth” on Saturday morning.The nearby localities of Jimmy Creek, Mirranatwa, Bornes Hill, Grampians, Victoria Valley, Barton, Jallukar and Londonderry remained under a “watch and act” warning on Saturday. An emergency alert for Mafeking and Watgania was downgraded, but still warned it was not safe to return.While the fire danger rating in western Victoria was reduced to “high” on Saturday, temperatures are forecast to hit the mid-30s on Christmas Day. Halls Gap is expected to reach 36 degrees on Boxing Day, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.State Response Controller Garry Cook said with little respite from the extreme weather conditions in the coming days, firefighters would work on reinforcing containment lines.“We are concerned about the weather over the Christmas period, which will likely see further spread of the Grampians fire,” he said in a statement.“The fire is expected to burn for several weeks due to the dry and rugged bushland it’s in. The terrain is also inaccessible to many of our crews on the ground, so we’re doing our best to attack the fire from the air where safe to do so.”A relief centre has been set up at the Alexandra Oval community centre in Ararat. Another opened on Saturday at Grampians Community Health in Stawell.Fire Rescue Victoria incident controller Mark Gunning (left) and Lowan MP Emma Kealy discuss the Pomonal fire in February.Gunning said the lack of rainfall across the Grampians over the past 24 months meant this fire – sparked by a lightning strike in inaccessible bushland near Yarram Gap Road on Tuesday – would burn for weeks.“And when you’ve got a really big fire in the landscape, it likes to do its own thing, and bulge in places,” he said.Gunning warned locals “spike weather days” could cause the fire to escape dense bushland and directly threaten towns surrounding the Grampians via fast-moving grass fires. Planned burns to create fire breaks had helped on Friday, but if a catastrophic fire danger rating day arose in the next month, Gunning said those defences could be overwhelmed.He reminded locals of the Mount Lubra bushfire in 2006, which burnt through about 184,000 hectares and killed Malcolm Wilson, 36, and his 12-year-old son Zeke when their car was engulfed by flames at Moyston.“I’m not comparing the two, but we did see a fire on a really bad day run about 22 kilometres in 16 minutes,” Gunning said. “So that gives you an idea, on those bad days, of what you’ve got to be prepared for.”Planned burned were conducted on the fire’s southern flank on Saturday to help protect the township of Dunkeld, which Gunning previously said could be in the firing line if hot northerly winds return.In February, fire raced down from the Grampians and consumed 44 homes in Pomonal, destroying one-third of buildings in the tiny town.On Saturday, Rudolph said the remaining “fire scar” was now helping protect the town from another blaze. However, the forest fire manager, whose family hails from Pomonal, cautioned the town could still be threatened in the coming days and weeks.Our Breaking News Alert will notify you of significant breaking news when it happens. Get it here.
