Smoke blankets Melbourne as out-of-control bushfires burn in Grampians, Bass Coast

“Right now, if you can see or smell smoke but can’t see fire, do not call triple zero,” he said. “Only call triple zero in a situation where you can see flames or believe that there is a fire nearby.”

A community information message was also issued in western Victoria for the air quality as smoke drifted east.

Just before 6pm on Friday, an emergency warning was issued for a blaze that took off at Coffeys Road near Bullengarook in the Macedon Ranges, north-west of Melbourne.

Parts of Gisborne, Lerderderg and Macedon were initially within the “leave immediately” alert zone, but were downgraded to a “stay informed” message before 7pm.

“The bushfire is travelling from Coffeys Road in a north-easterly direction towards Mulcahy Road,” the alert said. “Communities in this area could be impacted any time within the next 1-2 hours.”

More than 100 firefighters were tackling the 72-hectare blaze around 7.30pm on Friday.

On the Bass Coast, another existing bushfire flared up on Friday afternoon near the town of Grantville on the road to Phillip Island.

The Gurdies, a hamlet with a population of 243, is under a “take shelter now” emergency warning as the fire near Woodland Close burns uncontrolled.

“That warning area has now expanded to include much larger area than what was initially part of the warning,” Hegarty said. “It includes St Helier, The Gurdies and Woodleigh.”

A small part of the postcode of Loch, slightly further east, was also included in the emergency warning zone in an updated alert on Friday evening.

The alert said the fire was moving east from the Sand Supplies quarry close to the Bass Highway towards Gurdies-St Helier Road and Stewart Road.

“This fire is threatening homes and lives. It is too late to leave the area safely, so you must take shelter now,” the alert said. “You are in danger and need to act immediately to survive.”

A relief centre was initially set up at the Grantville Transaction Centre, but was moved to Wonthaggi YMCA on Friday night.

On Thursday night, Emergency Management Victoria incident controller Mark Gunning told a community meeting in Dunkeld that 24 months of rainfall deficiency had made the Grampians particularly susceptible to bushfires this summer.

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“Some of you live on the land; I don’t have to tell you how dry it is,” Gunning said.

With little rain on the horizon, Gunning said the Grampians bushfire could burn for weeks in dense, inaccessible bushland. It would occasionally jump out onto grass plains and threaten nearby farms and townships, he said.

“This fire has a real hold in the landscape … and it’s going to bulge out in a number of different places,” he said.

“If we get a northern [wind] influence, Dunkeld is obviously in the line of this fire.”

The incident controller warned the fire could “take off in a couple of directions at once” like the region’s devastating 2006 bushfires. Those fires burnt hundreds of thousands of acres, destroyed dozens of homes and killed Malcolm Wilson, 36, and his 12-year-old son Zeke when their car was engulfed by flames at Moyston.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Meteorology has increased its temperature prediction for Christmas Day, saying a high-pressure system will move out into the Tasman Sea a little faster than first predicted.

The temperature in Melbourne is now forecast to reach 31 degrees on December 25. On Boxing Day, the predicted maximum is 39 degrees in the city. There will be a 40 per cent chance of rain.

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