SWAN Hill region emergency services are bracing for a severe heatwave, with temperatures surging past 40 degrees each day until Wednesday.
After a predicted top of 40 degrees yesterday, the Bureau of Meteorology expects 44 tomorrow, 41 on Sunday and then 44 again on Monday, with a top of 43 on Tuesday.
Fire Authorities are preparing for an ‘extreme’ fire danger rating and total fire ban with fire trucks and helicopters on stand-by for grassfires, with expected winds of up to 30km/h.
Department of Sustainability and Environment fire management officer for the Mallee District Nathan Christian said today was expected to be the most dangerous during the heatwave and fire fighters were “bracing themselves”.
“We’ll be stepping up our readiness, which means putting more people in the field to respond to fire, more bulldozers, other equipment and aircraft, and our incident management team in Mildura and Swan Hill are on stand-by,” he said.
“During an extreme fire day people need to keep aware of the weather and conditions around them, keep an eye on warnings and incidents in their area in regards to fire and activate fire plans if advised.”
Mr Christian said the foremost threat were fires started in campfires, often near rivers. Already this summer about five fires in the Mallee district had begun this way, he said.
“We’re pretty concerned about the river country, where we could get fires from campers not extinguishing fires correctly.”
Meanwhile, the Victorian Department of Health has issued a Heat Health Alert for Monday.
The alert has been triggered by a combination of the forecast maximums and overnight minimums meeting the heat health temperature threshold of 34 degrees for the Mallee region.
The NSW department of health has urged people to look out for the elderly, infants and children, people with a chronic medical condition and people who live alone.
NSW director of population health Dr Therese Jones said it was important to take precautions such as drinking plenty of water, avoiding alcoholic, hot or sugary drinks, staying indoors and minimising physical activity.
“Signs of heat-related illness include confusion, dizziness, fainting, nausea, vomiting, weakness, headaches and loss of sweating,” Dr Jones said.
“People showing any of these signs should seek urgent medical attention through their GP or local emergency department.”
On average, Swan Hill receives 1.7 days equal to or above 40 degrees Celsius during January.
The predicted week ahead is the longest heatwave since early 2009, when Black Saturday bushfires hit after three days of 43 degrees maximums.
Swan Hill’s highest ever recorded temperature is 46.9, set at Swan Hill Aerodrome on February 7, 2009.
