Fire authorities won't meet planned burn-off targets despite the state facing a higher-than-normal chance of bush and grassfires this summer, Victoria's emergency management commissioner Craig Lapsley has conceded.
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Less than 1 per cent of the 10 per cent pre-summer burning target has been met.
"It's very minimal," Mr Lapsley said. "We're behind by about 20,000 hectares running into summer."
The backlog is due to a wet spring creating unfavourable burning conditions in areas including the damp forests around the Dandenongs, Otways and Macedon Ranges.
"It's only the last two weeks that they have been able to start the burns program and that's been in the Bendigo and Mildura area where it has started to dry out," Mr Lapsley said.
Most burning is done after summer. Pre-summer burn targets set for October and November account for 10 per cent of the annual burn target of 250,000 hectares.
Much of the annual target area is bushland, which takes longer for the sun and wind to dry it out.
Mr Lapsley said only around 4000 hectares of the 25,000 hectares scheduled to be burnt before summer started had been burnt.
"There's no way they can catch up in December what would normally have been done in October and November," Mr Lapsley said.
As a result land managers have taken to mulching, mowing and cutting vegetation in some parts of the state to create a firebreak.
Victoria's wet spring has not only meant fire authorities have been unable to undertake prescribed burning - the rain has resulted in prolific vegetation growth which has increased the fuel load.
Mr Lapsley identified grass fires as one of the season's biggest threats, particularly for people living on the urban fringe.
Generally speaking, grass fires move faster than bushfires and grassland dries out faster than bushland.
The state's dense forests are forecast to dry out by mid-January and February while grasslands could be tinder-dry as early as Christmas.
"We'll get the hot weather," he said. "It's coming."
According to Emergency Management Victoria, areas of the state facing an above normal potential for bush and grass fires this summer include the Melbourne's northern, western and south-eastern suburban fringes.
In December, the areas at greatest risk of bushfires will be between Melbourne and Echuca.
Come January and February, the risk will be greater for coastal communities along the Great Ocean Road – from Apollo Bay to Torquay.
Mr Lapsley said now was the time for people to do fire prevention preparations at home before the busy Christmas period took over.
The Summer Fire Campaign began in regional Victoria on Sunday and will be launched in metropolitan Melbourne and the suburban fringe on December 11.
This Christmas Day marks the one year anniversary of the Wye river bushfire, which destroyed 116 homes in the quiet hamlets of Separation Creek and Wye River.
