Overview
- Authorities reported temperatures above 40°C and gusts near 100 km/h driving rapid spread across roughly 30–40 active fires under declared catastrophic conditions.
- Police said a man, a woman and a child were missing near Longwood after crews earlier warned that evacuation was no longer possible.
- Fire services reported at least 20 homes destroyed in Ruffy as residents in dozens of towns were told to leave immediately.
- About 28,000 hectares have burned near Longwood, and a blaze near Walwa generated a pyrocumulonimbus cloud with lightning.
- Four regions were placed on the highest warning level, about 450 schools and childcare centers closed, and officials drew comparisons to the 2019–20 Black Summer within a warming climate context.