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Tuesday 13 January 2015
5973 6424 or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au Cross bearer: Matthew Papadimitriou clambers back onto Rye pier after successfully retrieving the wooden cross thrown into the water to celebrate the annual blessing of the water ceremony, or Epithany. Picture: Yanni
Splashing around for a blessing THE audience on top of Rye pier ducked the splashes as more than a dozen sets of arms and legs flailed around in the water below, scrambling for a piece of timber tossed into their midst by a man wearing an intricately woven cloak and wearing an impressive headpiece. Reverend Father Eleftherios Tatsis of the Greek Orthodox Church Panagia Kamriani at Red Hill was back on the pier for the annual Epithany, or blessing of the water ceremony. And the people splashing around in the water were church members eager to be first to seize the wooden cross tossed by the priest and gain his blessing. That honour went to Matthew Papadimitriou, 18, of Rowville. Continued Page 8
Mayor’s fire alarm Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au MORNINGTON Peninsula residents and visitors have been warned to be ready with bushfire survival plans. The warning from the mayor Cr Bev Colomb followed a 120 hectare blaze at Hastings that razed much of Warringine Park after a desperate battle by fire fighters to save houses. Cr Colomb said residents and visitors should “remain aware of the im-
portance of acting on the fire danger ratings and having a bushfire survival plan�. Hastings had “dodged a bullet� despite the Saturday 3 January fire which swept through the bushland reserve, the chair of the shire’s municipal emergency management planning committee, Cr David Garnock, said. The damage – and the heartache – could have been so much worse, he said. This view was shared by Hastings lawyer David Gibbs, group officer in
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charge of the local CFA brigades, who said that if the fire had jumped the Stony Pt/Woolleys roads intersection it had the potential to cause “massive destruction�. “We could have lost hundreds of homes,� he said. Luckily, no houses were lost or residents injured in the fires which began near railway tracks in Reid Pde about 2pm fanned by strong winds and temperatures in the high 30s. Piles of wood in a nearby timber yard provided an early source of fuel.
About 300 firefighters fought the blaze which sent embers flying over Reid Pde into paperbark forests grasslands at Warringine Park, jumping six houses on Seaglades Lane. A major wind change to the southwest at 6.30pm pushed the fire back towards Reid Pde and Warranqite Cres. Cr Garnock said the fortuitous wind change – which forced the fire back onto itself – had prevented what could have been a disaster for residents. “The fires were a wake-up call for us,� he said.
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A cool change later on the day of total fire ban brought rain and a 10 degree drop in the temperature, helping firefighters control the blaze by about 8pm. A community fire meeting at the Graham Myers Reserve, Bittern, on Saturday night - attended by 300 people - erupted into applause when CFA acting operations manager Neil Schlipalius said that while three houses had suffered external damage, none had been lost. Continued Page 5, 6 and 7
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