A large rubbish pile went up in flames about 4.40pm yesterday and the fire had engulfed 10 square metres of rubbish by the time crews arrived.

Wangaratta firefighter Brett Myers said they encountered problems trying to access the fire.

“Due to it being a weekend the premises was locked, so we had to make a forced entry,” he said.

“The fire wasn’t spreading too badly due to the lack of wind and the amount of rain we have had, but that rain actually caused complexities with gaining access to the fire.

“That meant we had to come up with better plan to get the trucks in so they didn’t become bogged.”

Three trucks and 15 firefighters from Wangaratta, Wangaratta North and Bowser attended the incident.

It took just under 30 minutes to bring the fire under control.

Mr Myers said it would have been a different story if the fire had happened during last week's weather conditions.

“The local land fill operator arrived and we used his bulldozer to pull apart rubbish and spread it along the grounds to make sure it was extinguished,” he said.

The fire is not being treated a suspicious, however the cause is unknown.