The fight against a fire that prompted the evacuation of several towns south-west of Ballarat last week was aided by the blaze reaching an area of a previously carried out planned burn.
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Crews were called to Staffordshire Reef Road near Jubilee Road, Newtown about 3.30pm on Tuesday, February 13, after the blaze sparked on private land during hot and windy conditions.
It came as Ballarat reached a top of 35.1 degrees at 12.30pm, with some wind gusts reaching 80kmh in the middle of the afternoon.
The fire burned into the Ross Creek State Forest as volunteers from the CFA and crews from Forest Fire Management Victoria battled the blaze in tough conditions.
An Emergency Warning and Watch and Act Warning was issued for areas including Newtown, Scarsdale and Staffordshire Reef, before Ross Creek, Smythesdale and Italian Gully were added to further warnings as fire reached the forest.
An FFMV spokesperson said the fire burnt about 563 hectares in the forest and preparations for an upcoming planned burn also helped with fire suppression.
The spokesperson said as of Sunday, February 18, the cause of the fire was still to be determined by fire investigators and police.
After the immediate threat of the fire impacting the nearby towns eased, residents speaking to The Courier said they were thankful for the firefighters from local and out of town brigades who battled the fire throughout the afternoon and overnight.
Ross Creek residents and General Store owners Anna Paxton and Ben Martin said they had seen CFA trucks coming from places they had never heard of.
"The CFA guys and girls were incredible," Ms Paxton said. "They just made sure people were safe."
Firefighting efforts continued into Wednesday, with aerial waterbombers continuing to dump water on the fireground.
The blaze was soon brought under control before a "community information" message was issued while crews continued to work on the site.
