Fire chiefs have blamed human error for another bungle that led to outdated information being relayed on the bushfire hotline while a current fire was ignored.
For 11 hours overnight Monday, the bushfire information line played a recorded message on a Gippsland fire from 12 days ago, while a 580-hectare blaze in northeastern Victoria was not mentioned.
The Country Fire Authority (CFA) says human error was to blame but could not explain exactly what went wrong. Meanwhile, the Victorian government has ordered its own investigation.
CFA state duty officer Peter Baker said the after-hours recorded message on the bushfire line had not been updated for 12 days because of a system breakdown.
He said the person responsible for making the update was "unaware that that had to happen".
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Mr Baker did not have details of how this occurred and had yet to speak to the staff member involved.
"In this case, the Victorian Bushfire Information Line did not fail. We had some human error that let us down in getting information into that system," he said.
"We've become aware of the issue, we've rectified it and there shouldn't be a re-occurrence."
The bungle comes after the CFA's online warning system crashed on a scorching day last month in its first major test since last February's Black Saturday bushfire disaster.
In November, a warning about a phantom bushfire that could "kill you" was posted on the website after a training exercise went awry.
Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said access to accurate and timely bushfire information was crucial and Victorians could not rely on the government to get it right.
"Clearly, (for) the people in northeastern Victoria their safety was compromised because of this incompetence," he said of the latest bungle.
Acting Premier Rob Hulls described the error as not good enough and has ordered the Department of Premier and Cabinet to investigate.
"The message has to be very clear that information in relation to bushfires ... has to be consistent, it has to be concise, it has to be clear, and it has to be accurate and up to date," he said.
