A Victorian coal-mine fire spewing potentially toxic smoke over a nearby town could continue to burn for another two weeks.
Authorities are monitoring the air quality in Morwell amid concerns of high levels of carbon monoxide in the smoke pouring from the blaze in the Hazelwood open-cut mine.
Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said an evacuation plan was briefly considered over the weekend, as carbon monoxide levels spiked.
But he said not all the smoke hovering over the town, in Victoria's east, contained high levels of the potentially deadly gas.
"I haven't seen any triggers that would indicate evacuation would be required from carbon monoxide," he told reporters in Morwell on Wednesday.
"We've seen a couple of spikes ... but they haven't been sustained.
"If you stood at a set of traffic lights in Melbourne for five minutes you're probably exposed to maybe 20 parts per million of carbon monoxide.
"We're not seeing that it's in the 200, the 300, the 400 parts per million. It's been in the tens of for short periods of time."
The grassfire that spread into the mine started on February 9 and Mr Lapsley estimated it would continue to burn for at least a further 10 to 14 days before it was controlled.
"Have we got the scenario that we're 80 per cent there but the last 20 per cent is as difficult as the first 80 per cent, we probably have," he said.
Two hundred firefighters are on rotating shifts battling the blaze.
A respite centre has been set up in nearby Moe to provide residents with relief from the smoky conditions.
Some schools and early childhood centres in part of Morwell have been temporarily closed or the students relocated to other Latrobe Valley schools due to the smoke.
