The Victorian Premier John Brumby said on ABC Television Stateline (21 August 2009):

“The hotspots, the most potentially dangerous were the Dandenongs, Macedons and the Otways. And when that fire got underway at Ferntree Gully, if that had been allowed to run, it would have destroyed the Dandenongs. Given the speed at which fires were travelling that day, it was 2 o’clock in the afternoon when they started to contain that fire. It could’ve, destroyed thousands of houses and taken hundreds if not thousands of lives. ”