Total Fire Ban declared for Geelong region

DUE to the updated weather modelling and grassland curing conditions, the CFA has extended a Total Fire Ban (TFB) declaration to now apply in Victoria’s Central – which includes the entire Geelong region – South West and North Central fire weather districts tomorrow (Tuesday, February 13).

Earlier today, the CFA declared a TFB for the Wimmera, Mallee and Northern Country fire weather districts.

Under a TFB, no fire can be lit in the open air or allowed to remain alight from 12.01am to 11.59pm on the day of the TFB.

Tomorrow’s conditions in the Wimmera, Mallee and Northern Country will be hot and windy with temperatures reaching around 40 degrees and northerly winds around 40-50km/h before a gusty south-westerly wind change with wind speeds between 60-80km/h.

CFA Chief Officer Jason Heffernan said tomorrow’s conditions in the Wimmera region – which have been given the highest Fire Danger Rating of “Catastrophic” – represented the worst fire risk day Victoria has experienced since the 2019-20 fire season.

Victorians can find out if a TFB is declared on the CFA website at cfa.vic.gov.au, where it is usually published by 5pm the day before a TFB.

For more information on what you can and can’t do visit the Can I or Can’t I page on the CFA website.

Victorians should also make sure they have access to more than one source of information. They include:

• ABC local radio, commercial and designated radio stations of Sky News
• The VicEmergency App
• The VicEmergency website emergency.vic.gov.au
• The VicEmergency Hotline on 1800 226 226, or
• CFA or VicEmergency X/Twitter or Facebook.