Cool weather has helped firefighters get the upper hand on a blaze that threatened townships in East Gippsland.
The 20 hectare blaze was bearing down on the towns of Cann River and Lower Tonghi in Victoria's far east on Tuesday.
A cool change and rain has helped quell the flames and firefighters hope to declare the blaze contained early on Wednesday.
Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) state duty officer Caroline Douglass said the cool change was a mixed blessing.
The winds were less volatile than expected and the change brought 3mm of rain, but that forced crews off the fire ground about 3am (AEDT) when tracks became too slippery.
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A team of about 50 firefighters would be back on site at first light and would hopefully declare the fire contained soon after.
"They will be going out to have a look at it this morning as it gets lighter and hopefully some time this morning they'll call it contained," Ms Douglass said.
Crews had finished building containment lines around the fire on Tuesday but were waiting to see if they held when the change came through before declaring the fire safe, she said.
Twenty firefighting vehicles and six aircraft were deployed to the blaze at the height of the emergency.
It was one of more than 120 incidents across the state as Victoria endured another hot day of extreme fire risk.
