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At least 52 homes burnt down by wildfires in Australia
The disaster is the latest of a string of bushfires to hit Victoria and Australia’s other states over recent weeks.
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TOM NIGHTINGALE: Angus Greene is one of a handful of local residents in Wye River at the moment, because the Great Ocean Road is blocked. REUTERS/Keith Pakenham/AAP A bushfire burns at Wye River near Lorne, south of Melbourne, December 25, 2015.
Fire officials said 116 houses in Wye River and Separation Creek had been destroyed in the 2200-hectare blaze.
Lorne and Allenvale were put on a “watch and act” alert.
To the sound of blaring sirens, hundreds of residents cut short their Christmas celebrations and fled to hastily organised evacuation centres as the normally packed route was closed.
Over 100 houses have been ruined by a Christmas Day bushfire officials say.
Emergency warnings remain in place for Wye River, Separation Creek, Kennett River and Grey River.
On Saturday afternoon, fire authorities fanned out across the fire zone to survey the devastation.
Bush fires are a common feature of the Australian summer, with up to 15 homes destroyed by blaze near Melbourne on Monday.
No injuries or deaths have been reported so far.
Five hundred firefighters and 13 aircraft were reportedly fighting the fire on Christmas.
But he warned there were “still many hotspots within the fire area so the change in conditions and the rain that fell this morning does not mean the threat posed by this fire is over”.
Fire trucks heading towards Lorne.
“The community really have appreciated the fact they can come back and have a look [at the damage], that’s traumatic in its own right”, he said.
“Within about three years they’ll be growing again at a similar rate to what they had been before the fire, but it will take about seven years or so for the canopies to reform”.
Mr West said some light and patchy rain had started to fall but more was expected across the fire ground through Saturday.
“I would have thought they would have lost at least 200 homes in this town”, Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Lapsley told reporters on Sunday.
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Police are urging people to avoid travelling along the Great Ocean Road this weekend if it is not necessary.