'Significant' changes cause fire periods to end earlier in the south-west

The fire danger period will end on Monday, April 22, for regions in the Country Fire Authority districts four, five, six and seven.

These districts include the City of Greater Geelong, Borough of Queenscliffe, Surf Coast Shire, Golden Plains Shire, Corangamite Shire, Colac Otway Shire, South Grampians Shire Council, and the Moyne, Ballarat, Warrnambol and Glenelg shires.

CFA Deputy Chief Officer of South-West Adrian Gutsche said conditions changing significantly had caused an earlier finish.

"There was real potential in the region for fires prior to this due to the late onset of summer, several high fire danger days and considerable drying of all available fuels," he said.

"Communities have really played their part by being vigilant and understanding the risk to ensure there were no damaging fires that could have put us at risk."

He said he urged everyone to stay safe and follow the rules, whether they lived in or were travelling to high fire risk areas.

"Please monitor the conditions on hot, dry and windy days, as we may still see some days of elevated fire risk," Mr Gutsche said.

Landowners will be able to burn off again, rules permitting, but he said residents must check whether it's safe to burn beforehand.

"You must register your burn-offs, check weather conditions and follow local council laws and regulations," he said.

"Registering your burn-off ensures that if smoke or fire is reported, the incident is crosschecked with our register, which prevents firefighters from unnecessarily responding."

Regions including Bass Coast, Baw Baw, Cardinia, Casey, Frankston, French Island, Greater Dandenong, Kingston, Latrobe, Mornington Peninsula and South Gippsland will have their fire danger periods end on May 1.

People can view the fire danger period seasons by region here.