A Melbourne legal firm has appealed for victims of the recent Kilmore fire north of the city to come forward as it looks to build a class action.

The bushfire on February 9 destroyed property and livestock in the community, 60km north of Melbourne.

Maddens Lawyers’ commercial litigation principal Brendan Pendergast told insuranceNEWS.com.au about 100 people attended a public meeting at Kilmore Racecourse last week.

He says a “structurally compromised” tree falling onto a live conductor caused the fire.

“The flavour of the meeting was one of outrage over the failure to trim trees, but also people are significantly out of pocket,” he said.

People were underinsured “in almost every instance”.

Mr Pendergast says about 500 property owners were affected by the “significant” fire, which destroyed 18 homes and killed hundreds of cattle and thousands of sheep.

Investigations into cause and liability are continuing and proceedings have not yet been initiated.

But Mr Pendergast believes there was a failure to discharge responsibilities on the part of the energy company. “The tree was clearly structurally compromised and had been for some time, and ought to have been identified as hazardous.”