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MELBOURNE - Weekend rain and milder weather forecast for the next few days is enabling fire crews to get the upper hand as bushfires continue to burn in Victoria's east.
Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) state duty officer Dennis Ward said weekend rain varied from light and patchy falls to about 20 millimetres across eastern Victoria.
"Things have been quiet overnight and we will be working on some of our containment lines following the weekend," Mr Ward told AAP.
"The rain has been good. We will be using the moderate weather in the next couple of days to strengthen our lines."
The 368,000-hectare Great Divide North fire that broke out on December 1, has been contained.
But three others - the 657,000-hectare Great Divide South fire, 33,000-hectare Tatong blaze, near Benalla, and the 5000-hectare Hermit Mountain fire, burning south-east of Corryong in the upper Murray Valley, are still out of control.
Warmer temperatures and dry northerly winds are expected to return on Thursday, Mr Ward said.
More than 1.1 million hectares - 11,000 square kilometres - of land has now been blackened across Victoria since early December.
A contingent of US firefighters will arrive in Victoria today.
As the crisis enters its 53rd day, the first 20 of 104 American personnel will arrive in Melbourne and undergo two days of training before being assigned frontline firefighting duties.
- AAP
