Firefighters on alert as Melbourne mercury set to soar above 40 degrees

Meanwhile, early morning walkers in Elwood were greeted with an unusual sight on Monday: a four-wheel drive got bogged on the beach’s shoreline.

Today reporter Christine Ahern was reporting on the hot weather forecast today when her cameraman spotted the car stuck with a wheel in the water around dawn.

“So we’ve come down and had a chat to the driver, Mohammed, and it turns out that he’s from NSW, [and] it’s a hire car. He decided to go for a bit of a drive on the beach, jumped over the path onto the beach, did a bit of circle work, and unfortunately, the Nissan Patrol is stuck,” Ahern later told radio station 3AW.

A bulldozer was later called to tow the car away.

Elsewhere, metropolitan firefighters were kept busy overnight as a blaze destroyed a house on Lady Nelson Way in Taylors Lakes around 3am.

In a statement, Fire Rescue Victoria said a “significant structural collapse” initially stopped crews from entering the two-storey home, but they eventually declared the fire under control at 3.43am.

“It has not been established if there was anyone inside however there are signs of [the house] being abandoned,” FRV said.

With Roy Ward