THE Mallee faces the greatest risk of bushfires since the "horrific" summer of 2019-20, a senior firefighter has warned.
CFA regional commander for Sunraysia Robin McNally, who has worked in the field for about 40 years, said firefighters were preparing for a very "warm and dry summer".
"The early predictors from BOM looks that we are going to be under an El Nino influence, which means warmer and drier conditions starting earlier this year," he said.
"We are expecting it to dry out in October and go right through to March and April.
"It looks like it is going to be an elevated summer (risk) period."
The National Council for Fire and Emergency Services this week released its Seasonal Bushfire Outlook for spring.
The Mallee, along with large parts of New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory, as well as small parts of Victoria and South Australia, have been labelled as at an increased risk of fire.
Mr McNally told Sunraysia Daily that even Mildura, which wasn't highlighted on the Australian Fire Authorities Council map, was at increased risk of fire.
He said it was the biggest fire risk since the 2019-20 Black Summer, when hundreds of fires burnt their way across many parts of Australia, destroying 3500 homes and 5852 outbuildings, and taking the lives of 34 people.
Another 445 people died as a result of health impacts caused by smoke inhalation.
He said while four to five wet years in Queensland and New South Wales had led up to the Black Summer fires, the amount of growth that had occurred in parts of Victoria over the past three had been huge.
"We have come out of two to three quite wet years, we have high fuel loads both in our parks and public land areas as well as private land," he said.
"Our farming land will have very heavy fuel loads from the last three years of having good crops."
Mr McNally said he didn't want people to think that the circumstances of Black Summer couldn't happen again.
"We have our fingers crossed that we don’t have a repeat," he said.
"That was horrific, as much from the loss, but also the sheer exhaustion from the community and the population on the eastern seaboard – everybody was so tired from fighting and trying to keep afloat."
Mr McNally said community members needed to remain vigilant and listen to all media outlets for weather updates.
"Weather changes very quickly and if we have a lightning event come through that will happen very quickly," he said.
He said residents needed to have a fire plan ready and know where they would go in the case of a fast-running bushfire and who they would contact.
He said it was also important to have valuables ready to go.
Fire Rescue Victoria north and west regional district assistant chief fire officer Jayson Hirt said it was important for people living on the urban-rural interface to be "conscious" of running grassfires coming into townships.
"They need to be prepare and maintain their property," he said.
Mr Hirt and Mr McNally said their respective crews had been completing pre-season training to prepare for the fire season ahead.
Forest Fire Management Victoria has also been conducting large-scale fuel reduction burns across the Mallee.
Individuals can sit down with family or their household to make or review their bushfire survival plan using tools at www.cfa.vic.gov.au/bushfireplan.
