Large plumes of smoke will be visible from the Cobaw Ranges on Friday morning as crews continue to burn out an unburnt area of fuel in an effort to contain a massive bushfire near Lancefield.
Residents of Lancefield and Benloch are being told they may see flames on Burke and Wills Track, south-east of Benloch.
CFA deputy incident controller Aaron Worcester said conditions were mild and “perfect for this opportunity” to strengthen containment lines.
“Bulldozers have been working for two days to establish a perimeter around the fire,” he said.
“As the country is steep and rough, some areas are difficult for the bulldozers to access and can only be managed by dozing a line further out and allowing remaining pockets of fuel to burn out to this line under controlled conditions.”
A watch and act alert remains in place for Benloch, Emu Flat, Sidonia, Nulla Vale, Pastoria East, Baynton and Baynton East after being downgraded from an emergency warning on Thursday.
A community meeting in Lancefield on Thursday night heard that firefighters had established close to 25km of control lines around the 60km fire.
A CFA aviation officer said the fire, which spread on Tuesday after a controlled burn jumped containment lines, continued to be calm in the mornings and evenings. But he said pockets were flaring up during the day as cloud cover lifted.
Authorities hope to control the blaze on Friday. They said they had little confidence in predictions of storm activity heading into the weekend but would continue to check conditions on the hour.
Confirmed property losses include two houses, several outbuildings and vehicles and fencing, though it’s believed up to four houses have been lost.
Assessment teams will continue to scour the area on Friday.
A government livestock expert told Thursday night’s meeting that animal losses appeared to have been light compared to other bushfires.
Another community meeting will be held at Lancefield Mechanics Institute at 2pm Friday.
