Fire authorities and communities are bracing for peak fire conditions in the coming hours as a south-westerly wind change threatens to impact a volatile bushfire burning in central Victoria.
A bushfire that ignited around 1pm on the Goulburn Valley Highway in Trawool, between Seymour and Yea, has grown throughout the afternoon.
It is currently burning in a south-westerly direction towards Strath Creek, but a wind change expected in the next two hours could shift the flames in a north-easterly direction.
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"It took off very rapidly and [has] taken hold. It's nearly 100 hectares and continues to move quite rapidly," CFA chief officer Jason Heffernan said.
"We are expecting, in the next couple of hours, for that frontal system to come through and a real gusty change will be affecting that fire ground, which will further push it to the east.
Crews are relying on several aerial assets including a water bombing helicopter to smother the flames with water from above.
"There is property already in the path of this fire and there will be further private property after the change, when the fire will change direction."
Heffernan warned communities in the vicinity of the Trawool fire to expect further emergency warnings as the frontal system moves across the state.
"The real peak time of concern for us this evening will be between that six o'clock to eight o'clock mark," he said.
"That's when we'll see the bulk of the change come through, affecting that fireground at Trawool.
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"They should see wind gusts potentially up to 55 to even 60 km/ph… so that will be a concern as that frontal system moves through."
Residents in large parts of Kerrisdale, Tallarook and Trawool have been urged that it is too late and to take shelter indoors immediately.
Those to the north and east of the Goulburn Valley Highway, in parts of Granite, Kerrisdale, Trawool, Dairy Creek and Homewood are not under direct threat, but should stay informed.
"There is currently no threat to you, but you should stay informed and plan for what you will do if the situation changes," the CFA said.
The potential fire impact zone has since been extended to other parts of Kerrisdale, Reedy Creek, Strath Creek and Tallarook, where residents along King Parrot Creek Road and surrounds from Tehans Road to Strath Creek Road have been told to evacuate immediately.
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King Parrot Creek Road is closed from the Goulburn Valley Highway to the Broadford-Flowerdale Road.
The Trawool fire is positioned about 20km from the western fringe of the deadly Longwood blaze that claimed hundreds of homes and one life last month.
"It's the same terrain, the same vegetation, country, as the Longwood fire was burning in," Heffernan said.
Elsewhere, a grassfire that burned along a major road in Melbourne's western suburbs this afternoon has been deemed suspicious by police.
Flames burned through grassland in front of Costco on Ballarat Road near the Western Ring Road in Ardeer around 3.30pm.
Fire crews extinguished the blaze, which has since been deemed suspicious, police said.
Despite a large amount of smoke and visible flames along the ring road, there was no threat to the community.
Fire authorities yesterday warned of elevated fire danger across the state today, spurred on by hot, dry and windy conditions and dry fuel.
A Total Fire Ban is in place across five fire districts today, amid extreme fire danger ratings.
Those districts include the South West, Wimmera, Central, North Central and West and South Gippsland.
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