The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) and Parks Victoria have issues a statement notifying residents that smoke will be visible around Melbourne this week as they begin a schedule of planned burns for 2015.

Planned burns near Point Cook and Somerton will begin today with more intended for the weeks ahead.

DELWP east metropolitan district manager, Dan White said: “We expect the new few days will give us the right combination of weather and fuel conditions to carry out safe and effective burning to reduce fire risk”.

“We will be igniting two burns at Cooper Street in Somerton this morning and a 14-hectare burn adjacent to the RAAF base at Point Cook,” he said.

White also gave assurance that the department works closely with the Bureau of Meteorology to ensure that conditions are right for burning off, so as to reduce the risk of bushfire, as opposed to starting one.

You can find the interactive map of planned burns via the DEPI website.