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Community Liaison Officers (CLOs) have been hard at work this week visiting towns surrounding firegrounds to offer up to date information and answer questions.
The Mobile Education Unit and CLOs from Country Fire Authority have been visiting towns in the Colac Otway municipality to provide reassurance and ensure community members are well informed about the unfolding fire situation.
On Saturday 17 January, CLOs visited Lavers Hill and Forrest and on Sunday they returned to the Forrest area as well as stopping in at Gellibrand.
This work builds upon the work of CLOs who have been visiting communities around bushfire areas for more than a week, since the state was gripped with catastrophic fire conditions.
Incident Controller at the Colac Incident Control Centre, Cameron Leary, said it was great to see the community so engaged.
"It is such a valuable resource being able to come to a place and receive information face to face from real experts," he said.
"Thank you to the communities and businesses that allow the team to be out there doing the work with the community.
"It is really important work that allows us to directly connect with those that may have already been impacted or who are at risk of being impacted in the future."
Throughout the weekend CLOs interacted with hundreds of people, including locals, interstate and international tourists visiting the area.
Visitors included tourists from Germany, France, the Netherlands, other parts of Europe, and the USA.
Mr Leary said it was important to engage with both groups of people.
"It is important our local communities feel taken care of and well prepared, but it is also important to make sure those that aren't familiar with our state are given crucial, potentially life-saving information," he said.
When visiting Gellibrand residents on Monday 19 January, Community Liaison Officers Tony Revell and Jacqui Mahony said it only reinforced further that the importance of community in these situations can't be understated.
"Getting the opportunity to visit the locals has been critical in raising community awareness and allowing people to feel prepared," Tony said.
"Everyone was actively seeking information about the current situation and the immediate future about what is to come.
"They were also just generally appreciative of the depth of information we were able to provide."
Being a close-knit community, throughout their visits, Tony and Jacqui were able to tap into local networks within town and build relationships for future community communications.
"There was also a great deal of people just wanting to thank us, and the work of all emergency services, and that was often how the engagement first started which was really lovely."
CLOs will continue visiting key locations ahead of forecast elevated fire weather this weekend and they encourage everyone to come and say hello.
Victorians are reminded to never rely on one channel for emergency information. Connect to official sources of emergency information, including:
VicEmergency app
Tune in to local emergency broadcasters such as ABC local radio, commercial and select community radio stations, or SkyNews TV
Call the VicEmergency Hotline on 1800 226 226
