‘That’s hazardous, without a shadow of a doubt’: Long grass beside the Hume Freeway before Longwood fire

1 month ago 13

Grass on the verge of the Hume Freeway near Longwood was significantly longer than the state’s fire-prevention guidelines suggest, The Age can reveal, as arson squad detectives investigate whether sparks from a truck trailer set off the deadly fire in the region.

The Country Fire Authority (CFA) recommends grass on verges be maintained at 10 centimetres during the danger fire period.

The Hume at the edge of Longwood on Sunday.

The Age observed taller, dry grass at the wire barriers on the verge along the Hume near Longwood on Sunday.

On Monday night, emergency services said the fire had been caused by a trailer throwing sparks on the Hume, but Emergency Management Commissioner Tim Wiebusch on Tuesday said arson detectives were still investigating and that was one line of inquiry.

“The truck trailer that’s being spoken of is just one of many avenues that Victoria Police’s arson squad are currently investigating,” Wiebusch said. “At this stage, the cause has not been determined.”

Exactly where the fire began also remains under investigation.

Chief CFA officer Jason Heffernan on Saturday said grass on the roadside would have made little difference during last week’s catastrophic conditions.

“I just need to stress that the science tells us when we’ve got the temperatures that we had, the winds that we had, the relative humidity is down to single digits, and the dryness of the fuels — you remember, the fuels in this state have been baking for days up until [Friday’s] event — it doesn’t matter what the fuel load would have been,” Heffernan said.

“You could have mown your front yard, and it still would have burnt [Friday] under [Friday’s] conditions. So yes, we did see fires spread very rapidly along road sides, but I would expect that under those conditions, just like it did in bushland and across paddocks and the likes.”

Victoria endured temperatures above 40 degrees last week.

CFA Volunteer Group vice president Brad Marson, captain of the Grassdale brigade who fought the Natimuk fire, said the longer grass was hazardous. The volunteer group was established last year to raise the plight of CFA volunteers.

The CFA is investigating how last week’s Longwood bushfire started.

He said fires could spark from roads, such as through popped tyres, even when the verge was freshly mowed.

“It just takes away a bit of risk,” Marson said.

He said it was more difficult to get on top of such a fire if the grass was longer, and described the Hume verge as being poorly maintained with too much fuel.

“That’s hazardous, without a shadow of a doubt.”

Roadside fire management guidelines from the CFA said strategies to limit this risk could include pull-over lanes or shoulders to separate sparks on the road from grass.

Where there is a slashed verge next to the road shoulder, the guidelines said grass should be maintained at 10 centimetres during the fire danger period.

This is limited by weather conditions, the document noted, given grass slashing creates possible sparks, and regrowth reduces its effectiveness over time.

While fire spreads about as quickly in slashed grass as standing grass, the flame height is approximately halved. This makes suppression more achievable if responded to quickly, the document states.

“When fire danger is high, regardless of fuel management, a fire is likely to leave the reserve in a matter of minutes,” it acknowledged.

Premier Jacinta Allan’s media event in Alexandra on Tuesday was disrupted by angry members of the public. Allan was heckled by a woman who claimed the CFA was underfunded.

“Shame on you, shame on your government for what you’ve done,” the woman said, according to Nine News.

Nine News reported a group of locals tried to corner the premier’s car at the press conference, but they appeared to have the wrong vehicle.

Allan said claims of underfunding were false and that peddling incorrect information could add stress to fire-traumatised communities.

Arson investigators outside Longwood, near where the fire started.

The Longwood fire, which threatened Alexandra, has torn through 137,000 hectares, destroyed 90 homes and left one dead.

The body of Maxwell Hobson was found 100 metres from a burnt-out vehicle that had run off the road in Gobur, between Yarck and Merton, on Sunday. The coroner is investigating his death.

In 2013, the government created a map and risk assessment document that examined the bushfire danger across Victoria’s arterial road network to reduce vegetation in areas of the greatest need.

That document is now receiving its first significant update, with tenders released in July 2025, to develop a new assessment that is likely to take three years.

Thick smoke blanketed Yea on Friday as the fire raged out of control.

The tender documents note that existing analysis of the roadside fire risk is now 12 years old and does not contemplate newer parts of the road network, changes to the environment and the effect of disasters like the 2019-20 bushfires and 2022 floods.

Back in 2018, the CFA aired concerns about 2000 kilometres worth of flexible wire rope barriers installed along country roads to prevent head-on and run-off-road crashes. The agency made clear it supported the barriers to save lives, but insisted vegetation would need to be maintained.

“VicRoads acknowledges the CFA’s interest in ensuring the management of fuel loads on road reserves,” the CFA said in a statement in 2018 after a meeting between the two agencies.

Road barrier systems have breaks to allow for roadside maintenance.

The Department of Transport and Planning, CFA, Victoria Police and Department of Energy, Energy, Environment and Climate Action manage the relevant risks. Councils also maintain responsibilities for local roads.

Asked about concerns that wire barriers had made vegetation management more challenging, Allan on Sunday reiterated that road barriers were “a proven way of saving lives and reducing the road toll”.

In a statement, a Victorian government spokeswoman said last Friday was the most dangerous fire day the state had faced in many years.

“We thank firefighters and other emergency services who did all the preparation possible to get ready for catastrophic fire danger,” she said. “The cause of this fire is still under investigation, including where the fire started.”

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