THE bushfire near Rosedale is now under control at about 12,200 hectares, after continued successful days of blacking out hotspots and strengthening containment lines.
Incident Controller Andy Gillham said the significant amount of work carried out by ground crews, machinery and aircraft during the past nine days meant the Incident Management Team was now in a position to call the fire under control.
“We are now comfortable that we’ve reduced the number of hotspots around the fire perimeter, making containment lines much stronger,” Mr Gillham said.
“We’ve been using infrared heat sensing technology to really pinpoint where the hotspots in the fire grounds are, and our firefighters have been putting in a solid effort to get into these areas to access them.
“Some of this has been pretty dirty and hard-going work, breaking apart smouldering stumps, roots and other materials, then drenching them with water, so thanks again for all your efforts.
“While getting the fire under control is a significant achievement by all involved, there’s still a reasonable amount of work to do.
“This means the community is still likely to continue to see a fair bit of activity out on the fire grounds, including crews, machinery and aircraft.
“The fire being under control does not change the status of any road closures.
“Please continue to monitor conditions, download the VicEmergency app, visit emergency.vic.gov.au or call the VicEmergency Hotline on 1800 226 226 for the latest emergency information.”
