Crews respond to blaze at Narrawong, planned burns under way across region

A CFA spokesperson said six CFA units responded to the fire on Liebelts Road, Narrawong, around 12.05pm.

"Units responded from Heywood, Narrawong and Heathmere," the spokesman said.

"Crews discovered the fire was running downhill and worked to get it under control.

Crews remain on scene, incident is ongoing."

Meanwhile, there are a number of planned burns in the south-west.

The CFA said last week it would be working with partner agencies to make the most of cooler autumn conditions to conduct fuel reduction burns to lower bushfire risk for communities.

CFA chief officer Jason Heffernan said while CFA and Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMV) worked closely with the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and Bureau of Meteorology to keep smoke impact as low as practically possible, smoke in regional and rural areas could come from a number of sources.

"Along with the important planned burns that are conducted in our forests, parks and reserves led by FFMV and the many kilometres of road, rail and council reserve burns that are led by CFA, this time of year also sees a large amount of smoke coming from the necessary burn-offs that our farmers and rural property holders undertake," Mr Heffernan said.

"These are part of traditional farming practices where burning off of crop stubble is often needed to kill off weeds and return nutrients and carbon back into the soil."

As the weather cools, smoke will also come from the many thousands of wood heaters households rely on for their autumn and winter heat source, he said.

"This localised smoke or smoke haze can often be misinterpreted as coming from planned burns from a long way away, but this is not always the case," Mr Heffernan said.

"As the weather conditions continue to allow for lower intensity burning, we will look to conduct the most suitable planned burns to ensure that our dependant native bush and grasslands are benefiting to avoid much more devastating bushfires.

"Our CFA brigades have already treated over 3600 hectares of land this year, helping make at-risk communities safer, with more to come over coming weeks."