A dry February and a predicted dry March have south-west firefighters on high alert.
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CFA District 5 assistant chief fire officer Richard Bourke said it had been a relatively quiet fire season, but the danger period was not over.
"Across the district we had 100mm of rain on average but February was a lot drier and the Bureau of Meteorology is predicting a drier than average March," he said.
"There's a large amount of grass across the district in various stages of drying out."
Mr Bourke urged people to remain vigilant. "So far this year we've had a very quiet fire season but we don't want people losing sight of the risks that we have in our landscape," he said.
"We want people to realise the fire season isn't over."
Mr Bourke said there would be a number of scheduled roadside burn-offs in the coming weeks.
He said south-west residents may see or smell smoke that is part of the scheduled burns.
On Sunday more than 80 firefighters took part in a planned burn of about 10 kilometres of roadside at Broadwater.
Mr Bourke said the burn gave volunteers the opportunity to gain skills required to become burn controllers.
He said volunteers were mentored by experienced burn controllers.
In addition to that it would remove fuel to protect the community from bushfires. "We protect the community through the reduction of fuel hazards along roadsides," Mr Bourke said. The south-west was affected by fires in March last year on St Patrick's Day.
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