FIREFIGHTERS say luck was on their side when an arcing power line sparked a blaze in the middle of the night near Noorat.
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The fire took hold in grass near the corner of the Terang-Mortlake and Darlington-Terang roads, at the base of Mount Noorat, but the relatively green vegetation meant volunteers could contain and extinguish it.
Noorat and District CFA captain Michael Williams said a member drove past the fire just before midnight on Monday and alerted emergency services.
"It had only just happened. It would have only been a few moments before the trucks got there," Mr Williams said.
Four brigades, also including Kolora, Terang and Mortlake attended and contained the blaze.
"We were just lucky with the recent weather. There was enough green undergrowth," Mr Williams said.
"We could have been waiting with 20 crews for it to come over the hill. But the brigades were quick at responding and it resulted in a quick win."
He said the location of the fire was dangerous due to "the risk the mount poses".
"The access to the mount isn't great. It has the potential to just run, the fire's rate of speed increases uphill," Mr Williams said.
He said the Noorat brigade responded to multiple fires caused by arcing power lines every year.
"It is a bit unlucky. We generally get them. We got winds on Monday night because it had been a dry day, it had blown dust up onto the wires," he said.
"We got very little rain, it was just a few little spits. It has created a bond between the power lines and the dirt, and it's started arcing."
But Mr Williams said he believed there was little that could be done to prevent the fire.
"It's just mother nature," he said.
"You aren't going to go around with a cloth and wipe every power pole."
A Powercor spokesman said crews responded to a network fault at Noorat just before midnight on Monday, which caused a power outage for about 1900 customers.
The power returned to everyone affected by 3.30am, he said.
"Crews and network controllers worked through the early hours of Tuesday morning to get customers back on supply," he said.
The spokesman said the cause of the outage was a suspected equipment fault.
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