Warrnambool station officer Greg Kinross said fire brigade officers were called to nine power pole fires across the city caused by dust build- up and light rain.

“It started about 9pm and there were a number of calls to different parts of Warrnambool,” he said.

“The worst was at Laverock Road where a cross-arm was burning.”

A Powercor spokesman said yesterday that 18 Caramut Road customers were without electricity for much of the day due to an outage that started at 8.39am.

“I presume that was another pole fire. We’ve had 34,000 customers off line due to pole fires,” he said.

Mr Kinross said the fire brigade was also called to Warrnambool’s Gillin Park in Mahoneys Road about 10.30am Saturday.

He said a woman left a pie in a microwave for too long and smoke spread through part of the village.

“Residents and staff were evacuated and fans were used to extract smoke out of the premises,” he said.

“We also opened all the doors and everyone was fine. Gillin Park’s procedures worked very well,” he said.