Country Fire Authority operations manager Paul King said firefighters worked extremely hard to contain the fires in very difficult conditions. 

He said aircraft from Benalla, Shapparton and Avalon had been called in to battle the blazes.

“We’re looking good but certainly all those fires will be under pressure over the next few days with severe fire weather coming through,” he said.

“We had 17 fires start, some in really difficult terrain… we’ll be doing our best to contain those, we’ve got containment lines around them now with firefighters on the ground and in the air.

“We’ll continue to work on them to lock them up but depending on the conditions we can’t guarantee they won’t get out – we’ll just be trying our hardest to make sure they don’t.”

Mr King said there were three areas of greatest concern to emergency services – Huon Hill, Guys Forest and the Annandale Bullioh area where multiples blazes started. 

He said the fire season has only just begun with more severe conditions predicted on Friday

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“Friday is a horrible day, with a late change with wind and with a landscape that’s been baking for a number of weeks now we’re expecting we’ll have a really difficult fire danger day,” he said.

“We’re in this for the long haul, we haven’t had our most significant fire danger month yet, which is February.

“It’s going to be a trying time with the 10th anniversary of the Black Saturday fires, we’ve got that to come yet and don’t underestimate the impact that will have on the community, but we’re in this for the long haul.”

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Mr King said as well as fighting fires, the CFA were tackling the mindset that fires are inevitable.

He said people need to avoid activities that can start fires, like angle grinding and slashing – even when a total fire ban is not in place. 

“They don’t have to start,” he said.

“We can’t do anything about the lightning but we can do something about what people do in the community.”

Mr King said rural residents should check their properties after lightning to identify fires early. 

“Don’t wait for it to get so serious a fire tower sees it or someone on the road sees it,” he said.

“If you think you’ve had a lightning strike in and around your property get out and about and if you find a fire report it in to us, we can get there, but getting to it early while it’s small is the most important thing.”

People can monitor the incidents at http://emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/ 

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