Authorities burnt more than 250 hectares to reduce fuel in the Otways at the weekend despite hot weather.
Department of Sustainability and Environment crews burnt 140 hectares at a Meadowell site near Barongarook and 110 hectares at three Lorne sites in the one day.
DSE burns controller David Rourke said the Meadowell burn began and finished on Saturday afternoon.
“We will continue to patrol and blackout the area,” Mr Rourke said yesterday.
“We will also continue to patrol and blackout the other burns at Anglesea, Lorne and Aireys Inlet,” he said.
Mr Rourke said crews completed the Lorne burns, at Green Break, Grove Road and Lorne West, about midnight on Saturday.
“All the burns are completed, however, there are areas where vegetation within those burns occasionally put up a bit of smoke and flame as it burns out, particularly with the warm temperatures and reduced moisture,” he said.
“There have been a number of columns of smoke in areas that were unburnt igniting within the burn perimeter.”
Mr Rourke said if warm weather continued as predicted, there would be smoke for a few days.
“We are getting a number of calls from concerned residents regarding fire activity,” he said.
“I’d certainly reassure people that we are patrolling the burns and monitoring activity throughout the day.”
Mr Rourke said 73 personnel were patrolling Otway burns yesterday.
He said crews would continue to constantly patrol the burns during the week.
“We are not intending to ignite any new burns at this stage until conditions are favourable,” Mr Rourke said.
“We have burnt 542 hectares in eight burns in the Otways within a three-week period which is a fantastic result,” he said.
The temperature reached 31.6 degrees Celsius at the Bureau of Meteorology’s automated Mount Gellibrand weather station, 20 kilometres north east of Colac, at 3pm yesterday.
The bureau predicts the weekend’s warm weather to continue in Colac, with a top of 30 expected for today, 28 for tomorrow and 27 for Wednesday and Thursday.