IT COULD take up to three business days for damaged phone lines to be repaired at the height of the fire season.

This was highlighted last week when a power failure to Telstra equipment left 100 residents in Wheatsheaf without working phones.

Fifty ADSL internet services were also unavailable.

Through the National Emergency Warning System implemented by Telstra on behalf of the government, emergency warning alerts will be sent by recorded voice and text to landline and mobile phones in a bushfire emergency.

But if the phone lines are down and there is no mobile coverage, people will not receive these messages.

Area general manager of Telstra Country Wide, south-west Victoria Bill Mundy said that during days of bushfire danger Telstra would respond to faults as quickly as possible.

But he said repairs could take three working days.

"Certainly during the bushfire season we have a heightened alertness to respond," he said.

Mr Mundy said last Monday's fault at Wheatsheaf occurred as a result of a power failure toequipment.

The lines went down on Friday night and were not restored until midday on Monday.

"We certainly apologise for any inconvenience that the outage has caused customers in the area at the time," he said.

Wheatsheaf resident Pete Walsh said considering the danger, it was much more than an inconvenience.

"Telstra should be tending right away to exchange-type faults because it affects so many people and we are in one of the high-risk areas," he said.

"Once the fire season is underway, it takes on a whole new meaning when they're not coming in over the weekend."

Another Wheatsheaf resident, Catherine Meadows, was at home with her two young children when the phone lines went down. She too worried that if a bushfire broke out, nobody could warn her.

"Even if my husband hears about it in Melbourne, he can't contact me," she said.

On Monday at Sharpes Lane, just 100 metres from Ms Meadow's home, a fire started.

The phone line had just been repaired.

Ms Meadows said her husband called to warn her.

"If the phones had been another hour he would have driven home," Ms Meadows said.