Two fires set to join in Vic's far east

Cooler weather conditions have helped slow the spread of numerous fires burning in the far east of Victoria but two major blazes are set to join up.

Two major fires burning in bushland in Victoria's far east are set to join and create a 110,000-hectare blaze.

Cooler weather conditions have slowed the spread of fires in far East Gippsland, some of which have been burning for a month, and fire authorities say they are hopeful the worst has passed.

The largest fire, in the Snowy River National Park, is close to combining with another fire.

Deputy State Controller Peter Rau says it looks like the 80,000-hectare Goongerah-Deddick Trail blaze and the 30,000-hectare Buchan-Jacksons Crossing Track fire will join.

"Clearly that's going to provide all our resources some significant concern," Mr Rau said on Tuesday.

The fires in far East Gippsland have already burnt more than 130,600 hectares between the Snowy River and the NSW border.

Most of the Gippsland fires have been burning for weeks, sparked by lightning in mid-January or over the past week.

The extreme weather conditions that led to 200 grass and scrub fires across the state on Sunday also caused a dramatic spread of several of the Gippsland fires.

Orbost incident controller Ross Williamson said 11 homes were lost on Sunday.

"Firefighters worked extremely hard on asset protection leading up to Sunday and some great work was done but the extreme weather conditions caused some fires to jump containment lines," he said.

The three largest fires at Deddick Trail, Jacksons Crossing and Mt Jersey made large runs on Sunday, he said.

Eleven fires were still not under control.

Base camps have been set up for firefighters and support personnel.


2 min read

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Updated

Source: AAP


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