The orange firefighting helicopter and CFA ground crew were called out to the blaze near Ballan Road in Quandong as flames crept north towards the outer western Melbourne suburb of Eynesbury on Saturday night.

Residents were warned to leave their homes while the big air crane made its way to the scene from its temporary airbase in Lethbridge about 6.20pm.

The strike team, which was a group of fire trucks led by a 4WD, was spearheaded by Ballarat City members along with brigades from Ballarat, Sebastopol, Buninyong and Wendouree.

Three aircraft and more than a dozen trucks managed to bring the 50-hectare fire along Melbourne’s outer urban fringes under control about 8pm.

The cause of the blaze was yet to be determined as of Monday afternoon, CFA members said.

Emergency Management commissioner Craig Lapsley had previously said Ballarat’s urban interface was fire-prone, including suburbs surrounded by grassland such as Lucas.

Speaking to The Courier in October, Mr Lapsley singled out residents who live on Ballarat’s fringes.

“Ballarat’s one of those places where people live near the bush but might not be used to the associated risks,” he said.

“It hasn’t just got people who live in town and out on the land, it’s got people who live in between, in the urban interface areas.

“So it’s important to understand those that live in this environment may not be used to it.”

The air crane, one of only six of is kind in Australia, will now return to Melbourne after being based in Lethbridge on Saturday as temperatures soared across the Ballarat region.

Controversy surrounded the state government’s decision to move the air crane from Ballarat to the Melbourne suburb of Moorabbin in 2016.

But there are now two faster helicopters based in Ballarat and Bacchus Marsh.

“People love the orange crane, it’s seen to be a silver bullet,” Mr Lapsley previously said. “We say it’s one of our bullets in the armory.”