Firies have recalled the tense moments their truck was awash with flames while fighting a fire in Pomonal on Tuesday night.
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The crew of five were part of a Eureka Group strike team from Ballarat, sent to the rural town east of the Grampians yesterday in response to bushfires ravaging the area.
CFA deputy group officer Jarrod Pegg led the Ballarat crew when they arrived at the fire ground at about 4pm on Tuesday, immediately identifying a need to protect properties in the line of a "wall of fire".
He estimated that it took about 20 minutes from arrival for the wind to turn, bringing the blaze towards them and activating their burnover protocol.
"There was a large plume of smoke as we approached Pomonal. From there as we entered the township there was a very strong wind blowing through," Mr Pegg said.
"There was a pending wind change that was communicated to us. We were expecting that wind change to come through, and then that wind change came through not long after and the fire activity picked up immediately."
The volunteer crew's training kicked in immediately as Mr Pegg called in a burnover, which required the firefighters to retreat back into their truck and activate countermeasures.
"Burnover involves crews returning to their trucks and activating our crew protection systems, which includes our fire protection curtains on the tankers and our water sprays," Mr Pegg said.
"After that we put in our mayday messages to inform other units in the area that we are in that situation. We then do further protection within the truck, taking shelter under our blankets.
"It happened very fast. Fortunately our training kicked in."
Sitting inside the confines of the cabin, the flames licked the body of truck, evidenced by melted plastic on the sides and mirrors.
Luckily the crew only escaped with one minor injury, a burn from an ember which was treated as the crew was en-route back to their staging point at the Pomonal sports ground.
Following the mayday call the crew was helped by other crews with the strike team, including those from the Buninyong brigade.
Back at their rendezvous, the crew assessed what had happened, recuperated and went back out again to fight the fire pressing on the Pomonal township.
"My crew was pretty adamant, and I am proud of them, that they were keen to get back on the fire ground as soon as we could," Mr Pegg said.
"During my time in the CFA I have been to a range of fires, this fire would be one of the more erratic fires I have been to.
"I have certainly been to many large fires, but the fire behaviour on this occasion was a lot different to previous fires I had been to. The weather was very erratic."
It is still yet unclear how many homes have been lost in the Pomonal blaze, and unsafe for residents to return to their homes.
The threat has eased in the Grampians National Park, but two watch and act warnings for separate fires remain in place for residents in areas to the park's north and east.
Almost all fires sparked in Victoria yesterday were believed to be sparked by lightning strikes as storms lashed the state and winds between 120km/h and 157km/h downed trees and electrical infrastructure, state emergency commissioner Rick Nugent said.
The State Emergency Service has received 4600 calls for assistance between 9am on Tuesday and 11.30am Wednesday.
The CFA confirmed five of their firefighters had to be treated by paramedics after running into trouble fighting the fire.
Eureka Group strike team leader Alistair Cuzens commended all of the volunteer firefighters from Ballarat who attended the bushfire for their prompt response.
"I just want to commend the other crews for coming to their aid in their time of need," Mr Cuzens said.
"It was a really good outcome and again we rely on our training. The training got these guys through. To see the mayday message out on the fire ground like that, and have two trucks out on top of them within two minutes, was pretty pleasing.
"We offered to take them off the fire ground for an extended period of time, but again and again they wanted to get back out there. It was really pleasing. You just see the resilience of this group, it was fantastic."
Elsewhere, the threat level for a bushfire burning around Scarsdale has been eased, as residents begin the cleanup after a night of high activity.