A Watch and Act message for residents in the Cobrico area, north-west of Cobden, to consider the health risks from smoke from a nearby peat fire has been downgraded to an Advice message.
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Peter Walters from the Warrnambool incident control centre said people with concerns about the peat smoke had been advised on Friday to go to the Terang relief centre to get their health assessed.
He said while the message had since been downgraded to an Advice level today, the Terang and Cobden relief centres would be open today for people wanting information about the health impacts of peat smoke and to give advice about what people should be doing because of the smoke.
Peat smoke emits a number of gases including carbon monoxide, which can cause serious and long-term health problems.
Mr Walters said people with lung and heart conditions, children aged under 14, people aged over 65 and pregnant women should stay indoors when there was peat smoke about.
Windows should be shut, air conditioners should be put on a recycle mode and people in the risk groups should not exert themselves.
People should also limit their amount of outdoor activity when peat smoke was building up in the air.
Mr Walters said fire fighting authorities were examining options on how to extinguish the peat fire.
Peat fires burn underground and can be difficult to put out.
Mr Walters said the options being examined were to burn the area at high temperatures to exhaust the fuel or put a trench around the burning area to contain it and let it burn out slowly.
He said rain this morning had helped with fire control measures on the sites burnt in last Saturday’s St Patrick’s Day fires.
Warrnambool received 6.6 millimetres in the 24 hours to 9am this morning, Mortlake 13.4mm, Hamilton 9.6mm, Port Fairy 10mm and Portland 7.6.
The falls were the most substantial for this month, with the dry conditions prior to last Saturday creating a volatile environment for the fires that occurred.