On a day with a real potential for serious fires to break out across the region and a severe fire danger rating, such as Friday when the temperature exceeded 40 degrees in the Ballarat region, staff from a number of agencies including Forest Fire Management Victoria, the Country Fire Authority, police and representatives from local government agencies gather at the Incident Control Centre, located in a quiet street in Sebastopol.

The ICC - which covers the area from Blackwood to Clunes, across to Mt Cole and over to Dereel - is the central point from which the appointed members of the incident management team provide direction to the response in the event of an emergency situation. At peak capacity more than 130 people can be present.

Three Incident Control Centres (ICC) operated in the Grampians region on Friday - at Ballarat, Ararat and Horsham - under the Australasian Inter-Service Incident Management System.

By 9am, people from all manner of agencies had started to flood into the building to be briefed for the day ahead, donning coloured vests outlining their titles, looking at maps and making phone calls.

The expertise and preparedness for the possibility of a major event was clear in a briefing of all agencies at 10am, in which the weather forecast and other potential risks and what resources would be available should an event unfold were communicated.

A sombre feeling fell across the room when the lives of the two volunteer firefighters who died in the line of duty in New South Wales the night before were mentioned - a poignant reminder of the risks associated with firefighting.

By mid-morning pagers started to beep as the first fire of the day broke out near Haddon and people around the centre jumped to attention, rushing to computers as phones began to ring.

Planning officer Peter Livitsanis had prepared a presentation on the day's weather forecast. He said the extreme dry heat coupled with wind was a concern throughout the day, with the heat expected to peak late around 2pm and little relief into the night.

While immediately around Ballarat itself was not so much of a worry, it was to the east towards Bacchus Marsh and to the west towards Beaufort and Ararat where real concern was focused.

Mr Livitsanis said while the Ballarat region was still green several weeks ago, the degree of grass curing following several days of hot weather was one worry for the teams.

Another was a trough expected to travel through late on Friday evening that was expected to bring dry lightning strikes - posing a significant fire risk.

He said this was a particular concern as it would be fanned by a wind change at 11pm, meaning if a large fire broke out, it would continue overnight as no rain was forecast.

Incident Controller, Deputy Chief Fire Officer Jon Rofe of FFMV, said the firefighting effort was a multi-faceted approach.

Earlier in the week CFA and FFMV duty officers had organised the teams who form the incident management team on site.

Mr Rofe said the teams had been set up based on the fire danger triggers and the hotter it becomes, the more the effort is scaled up.

The incident management team is comprised of several teams including planning, operations, logistics and public information and is accentuated by an Emergency Management Team, comprised of Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria and local government representatives.

The operations team manages the ground fire crew operations, which were at a heightened level of readiness on Friday. The FFMV and CFA firefighters work together on the ground, sharing skills and experience to fight fires.

Their efforts are supported by water bombing aircraft.

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"They provide fantastic support to our on ground firefighters," Mr Rofe said. "They slow the spread of the fire down, protect assets and support our on-ground firefighters with their operations."

Other tools include having an air observation aircraft on standby as a means of fire detection or for aerial observation if an incident does occur, as well as the fire observers in the lookout towers around Ballarat who are constantly scanning for signs of smoke and measuring weather conditions.

Feeding the information back to the community, issuing warnings and in the event of an emergency, setting up community meetings, is tasked to public information officer Jen O'Beirne and information and warnings officer Christine Millington.

FFMV Grampians is currently supporting the firefighting effort in Gippsland, meaning many staff are on the other side of the state. However, there is a local agreement with the CFA to supply additional resources if need be.

Due to the excessive heat and forecast dry lightning, it was planned to stagger people through the doors throughout the day, to ensure a strong control team would be on deck if a significant fire started late in the day.

Deputy Incident Controller Commander Anthony Pearce said all CFA brigades were ready to respond to any incident which may occur, including the usual call-outs.

An extra level of preparedness had been undertaken such as to identify crews to be deployed as strike teams and rostering extra staff in the office to support the possibility of a fire ground.

Keeping an eye on the weather conditions was critical, Commander Pearce said, so that a rapid dispatch of fire crews and aircraft could occur if a fire ignited.

Another crucial factor is disseminating warnings to the community as quickly as possible to allow residents to heed the warnings and enact fire plans.

Despite the risk of bushfires, it was also "business as usual" for CFA fire crews, with crews called out to respond to day-to-day jobs such as car accidents as per usual.

"Weather like this also increases the likelihood of a whole range of other fire calls - power lines dropping and air conditioners setting fire to buildings," he said.

Firefighters also support paramedics with emergency medical responses, which increase with hot weather.

Commander Pearce said fire investigators would be on site as quickly as possible to start investigations following a fire, and would work very closely with Victoria Police if arson was suspected.

Aircraft Officer Mark Lee was tasked with overseeing the deployment of aircraft and said Ballarat was well placed to respond with the resources on hand.

There are three aircraft stationed in Ballarat and all were prepared to launch from 10am: a light helicopter, a firebombing helicopter as well as a light fixed wing aircraft for use as an air observer platform, however there are other aircraft available to call on if need be, with 50 aircraft available across the state this fire season.

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While the night vision program has experienced a slight delay and has not yet begun, it is innovative - Victoria is the only state in Australia that is running it, with very few in the United States and will be a great benefit.

Ballarat police's Senior Sergeant Peter McCormick is a Municipal Emergency Response Coordinator (MERC) for Ballarat.

His role, along with two other members representing Pyrenees and Moorabool, is to represent their local government areas.

Working closely with the Incident Management Team, their role is to ensure effective command and control is in place and resources are distributed effectively.

"One of the strongest elements of emergency management is the network and teamwork of experienced campaigners who work exceptionally well together," he said.

Other police members also drop into the command centre if an incident unfolds, including a traffic manager and if a fire was so serious residents needed to be evacuated, an evacuation manager.

Council representatives were also in attendance, including from the City of Ballarat, Hepburn Shire and Moorabool.

Moorabool Shire Council's Cherie Graham always tries to attend the control centre so she can liaise back with the council office.

"After the briefing I send out the information to our mayor, councillors and CEO and our emergency management team to let them know what's happening," she said.

As part of the council's heatwave plan, they also had a cooling centre open, to provide air conditioning for anybody who needs a reprieve from the heat.

As always, it is always critical that residents are vigilant and use systems such as the Vic Emergency app to stay up to date with information, while also taking responsibility for their own properties prior to a high fire danger day rather than relying fire trucks to arrive.

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