MELBOURNE - Victorian firefighters expect to have the last of three fires burning in the state's east contained by tonight.
Favourable weather conditions allowed firecrews to finish containment lines around the largest fire at Nowa Nowa, 10km southeast of Buchan today.
The fire was sparked by lightning on
New Year's Day and is expected to scorch 710ha within containment lines before burning itself out.
"Things are going well, we've only got three (fires) still going," Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) spokesman Stuart Ord told AAP.
"In the last couple of hours we've managed to put a containment line around the big one."
The three East Gippsland fires still burning out of control include a 26ha blaze at Lightning Track on the eastern edge of the Snowy River National Park and a 28ha bushfire about nine km northwest of Buchan.
Both fires were expected to be contained by late today, Mr Ord said.
A third, small fire that flared today at Corryong, near the NSW-Victorian border, would be contained within hours, he said.
Mr Ord said about 18 fires had ignited since January 1 and crews would continue to monitor them for at least another week.
He said it was important firefighters got on top of the blazes before temperature rise again this weekend.
"We're hoping to have them all contained by the end of the day, it's good because we've got some more warm weather coming in tomorrow.
"We've got to round up what we've got as quickly as possible and we think we should be able to do that by the end of today."
Mr Ord said the blazes were in steep terrain and had the potential to be much worse.
Fortunately, mild weather conditions had allowed firefighters to get close to the firefront, he said.
With lightning forecast this weekend, fire services are on alert for more flare-ups and have urged the public to report fires at the first sighting.
- AAP
