THE 2014 fire season could start as soon as the end of October, prompting the CFA to urge residents in the region to prepare their homes.
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CFA Grampians Regional Commander Mick Harris said a dry winter had lead to an increased fire risk particularly to residents on the outskirts of Ballarat, farming properties and surrounding towns.
Mr Harris lead the pre-season briefing at the Buninyong Golf Club on Tuesday, which was attended by relevant agencies and bodies including Victoria Police and DEPI.
He said a drier than average winter had led to predictions of an early start to the fire season.
"Further to the west in the Mallee, we look at it starting later this month or early November," Mr Harris said.
"The immediate Ballarat area, we are looking at mid to late December.
"What that will mean is we will have an above-average fire season. In the last few weeks we have had some very strong temperatures with strong winds."
The briefing was one of 17 in Victoria to make the state fire-ready.
Mr Harris said many lessons had been learnt from the 2013-2014 fire season, including the CFA's first large-scale evacuation.
"The evacuation of Halls Gap last season was the first large-scale evacuation ever where we evacuated several hundred people," he said.
"We are sharing what we learnt out of that experience today with other agencies."
He said communication on the fire ground was a major focus of the briefing.
"We will focus on the transfer of control from fire centre to incident control centre and then from one to another," he said.
"It's also a transition from the response phase to recovery.
"It needs to be seamless. We are not only putting out the fire and protecting people, we are working with agencies to move people back to normal."
For more information on preparing your home for the fire season, visit www.cfa.vic.gov.au
david.jeans@fairfaxmedia.com.au
