00:00 Aircraft after aircraft dump swimming pools worth of water on a third difficult day, racing
00:10 to contain an enormous fire that's already razed at least three homes and decimated farmland.
00:17 I think everything's pretty much been burnt to some degree.
00:21 The blaze in Victoria's west has blackened nearly 16,000 hectares.
00:27 Emergency warnings for nearby areas like Bayondean, Chute and Elmhurst were downgraded in cooler
00:34 temperatures and lighter winds this morning.
00:37 But the battle is far from over.
00:39 There is a very wide fire front that remains very active.
00:45 The Premier had an eagle eye view of it today.
00:48 On the ground, residents are being told it's not safe to return.
00:54 Dozens of people crammed pets and prized belongings into their cars and fled days ago.
01:01 They now face another night in relief centres and an anxious wait to return.
01:06 That's the worry, because it's on your mind all the time, wondering what's going on and
01:12 asking people all the time.
01:13 At this stage we still know nothing, so it's a little bit stressful and we've left a lot
01:17 of animals behind.
01:18 The fire front is just on the other side of this range and locals here who decided to
01:23 stay have told me there was a barrage of helicopters and aircraft last night dropping water and
01:30 retardant as emergency services try to bring this blaze under control.
01:35 Teams are working hard to establish containment lines, but it will take time and there's more
01:41 bad weather ahead.
01:42 The fire will not be completely contained by Wednesday.
01:45 Early forecasting says parts of the state could face their worst fire day in four years.
01:52 We are looking at a very, very difficult and dangerous day ahead on Wednesday.
01:57 Prompting a now familiar warning to get prepared.
02:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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