With the weather heating up and plenty of people heading out to camp along local rivers this weekend, holiday-makers are being reminded to stay fire safe.
The warning comes after a fire burned seven hectares of land along the Goulburn River at Kotupna on Monday night, with a campfire suspected to have started the blaze.
About 89 firefighters from the CFA and Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMVic) fought the blaze which was spotted about 11pm in Lower Goulburn National Park near Rathbone Rd.
Fourteen CFA tankers were used in fighting the fire, while FFMVic used three Unimog tankers, three G-wagon trucks, a first attack dozer and a contract excavator.
The fire in bushland was not deemed under control until 1.26am on Tuesday and was considered contained by Wednesday morning.
The fire is still not completely out and FFM Victoria crews are expected to continue to patrol the fireground and continue blacking out for a couple of days.
There are a number of large, burnt, river red gum trees within the fireground that are still being managed by crews.
FFMVic incident controller Neville Wells said the fire was a good example of an effective response by CFA and FFMVic firefighters which helped contain the spread of the blaze and limit its potential risk to the community and environment.
Mr Wells said the cause of the fire was being investigated, however it was suspected that it may have been ‘’caused by an escaped campfire”.
It comes as a timely reminder to people who may be heading into the bush to camp for New Year’s Eve.
“We can’t emphasise enough, if you are going to ignite a campfire, you must make sure that it complies with campfire regulations, is supervised at all times, and extinguished with water when you leave,” Mr Wells said.
“All it takes is one ember to escape, days after the campfire was lit, and we can have a bushfire on our hands.”
CFA District 22 commander Rohan Taylor also reiterated that people should never leave campfires unattended, and they should be extinguished at night when everyone went to bed.
With New Year’s Eve almost upon us, people are also warned not to set off fireworks, especially in bushland, after a fire at Koonoomoo on Tuesday night is suspected to have started from fireworks.
Tuesday’s fire burned about 0.1 hectare of land in the Weiss Beach area.
“We ask that people don’t discharge fireworks because it’s so dry,” Mr Taylor said.
“A lot of people don’t understand fireworks do start fires.”