Waterbombing has slowed the spread of a bushfire threatening the central Gippsland farming community of Willung, Victoria's Country Fire Authority (CFA) says.
An emergency warning was issued to residents of Willung around lunchtime, but this was downgraded to a watch and act warning around 5.30pm.
The downgrade follows "extensive" waterbombing in previous hours, which had kept the fire more than a kilometre from the nearest home.
The fire has been burning since Friday and has 80 kilometres of active perimeter, the CFA said, with gusty conditions causing a flare-up in its south-west corner earlier today.
The fire is travelling in an easterly direction, and the CFA said firefighting efforts will continue throughout the night.
This will include night-time water bombing, it said.
Those in the area — including residents along Gormandale-Stradbroke Road — are advised to remain vigilant.
Some rain is possible in the area tomorrow, the Bureau of Meteorology said, with a high of 29 forecast at the fireground.
CFA incident controller Peter West said the water bombers were deployed from Melbourne, and were dropping retardant on the blaze to give the 200 firefighters on the ground time to work.
Police investigate cause of blaze
Today's blaze follows testing conditions over the weekend, in which nearly 200 fires burnt across the state.
Authorities previously said they were treating the Rosedale fire and the weekend's other major blaze, at Strathbogie, as suspicious.
But on Tuesday, Detective Inspector Luke Smeaton said no direct evidence of arson had been found so far in the investigation into the cause of the Rosedale fire.
"At this point our investigations do not reveal that any crime or criminality has been committed in relation to this fire," he said.
He said police are investigating several possible causes for the fire, including lightning strikes.
An investigation has also been launched into an incident on Saturday that left the firefighters at the Rosedale blaze vulnerable after a sudden wind change.
The firefighters were caught in a "very serious situation", according to Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp, which left them shaken up.
