Firefighting assets are being prepared in at-risk regions and strike teams are being staged in preparation for similar conditions that caused a fire in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers national park to break containment lines on Friday.

TFS deputy chief officer Bruce Byatt said there was also a high risk of fire in the north-east.

“We’ve got a band of Tasmania down the eastern coast that we’re keeping an eye on, and certainly in that central midlands area,” he said.

“We’ll continue to keep an eye on those areas.

“They certainly are at higher risk than other parts of the state, but we’ve also put in place action plans where we’ve staged strike teams and we’ve got assets in predetermined locations to make it quicker and easier for us to get in there and fight those fires quickly to keep them under control.”

Related: Bushfires continue to burn in Tasmania

The TFS is continuing to analyse its options for extinguishing the Gell River fire that has burned over 17,000 hectares since Friday, hoping that rain will support firefighter efforts.

Mr Byatt said the next week was crucial for getting on top of the fire, which was likely to continue burning throughout January.

“The next week is actually our best opportunity to have an impact on the fire. The weather conditions are in our favour,” he said.

“After that is probably more problematic so we’re putting in our best endeavors now.”

The fire’s impact on important natural assets in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers will be reviewed once the immediate threat is contained. The fire also burned near popular tourism areas, including Lake Rhona.

The initial containment effort faced criticism from environmentalists and unions, who claimed lessons had not been learnt from the 2016 bushfires.

Mr Byatt defended the initial response from Parks and Wildlife, and said the fire burned in buttongrass making it difficult to detect.

“There was a significant effort put in to controlling that fire by all agencies prior to that significant weather day,” he said.

“We will conduct assessments after this fire in both our operational actions, and the implications to that World Heritage Area.”