"Keep safe all. And we'll see you on the flip side."
Bruthen residents have been told that it is too late to leave the area, as the Marthavale-Barmouth Spur fire bears down.
Eight emergency warnings remain in place for East Gippsland, with a total of 180,000 hectares of land affected by fires.
The State Control Centre (SCC) said there was 21 ongoing fires across Victoria on Monday night, with a south-westerly wind change expected about midnight.
According to an SCC media spokeswoman, the Wingan River bushfire is burning east towards Mallacoota, with residents told that leaving the town now could be deadly.
East Gippsland is subject to a severe thunderstorm warning too, which heightens the risk of strong winds.
An emergency warning has been issued for the Lakes Entrance and Orbost areas, telling residents and visitors that it is too late to leave the area now, and that the safest option is to shelter indoors.
Gippsland resident Tyson Whelan said the fires were still between 10 to 15 kilometres away from where he was in Lakes Entrance late on Monday, but it was “extremely smoky” with ash and embers falling from the sky.
“There’s still quite a thick haze across Lakes Entrance,” he said.
“When the embers were coming down earlier, we were out the front of the house with hoses and buckets, much like the rest of the town. It’s tapering off a little bit now as the cool change is coming through.”
Mr Whelan said his friends in Sarsfield, to the south west of Bruthen, had told him that “conditions are pretty horrific” there.
“There has been reports that the house is in serious danger… there’s smoke pluming towards them,” he said.
Late on Monday police closed the Princes Highway from Bairnsdale to Genoa - about 180 kilometres of road - a move which prevented any more holidaymakers from leaving Lakes Entrance.
On Sunday Victoria's Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp told the more than 30,000 tourists who were in the town to pack up and go immediately before the bushfires closed in.
Wendi Perkins, who owns the Bamboo Motor Inn at Lakes Entrance, said her business was “full up” on Monday night as holidaymakers fled from further east in Gippsland.
She said tourists were shocked that they could not leave the town early on Monday evening because of the closure of the Princes Highway.
“We’ve been watching all the smoke collecting around us, it’s not good,”Ms Perkins said.
“I can’t believe the amount of people that weren’t aware they should have been leaving earlier.
“People are coming in from the fires, and they didn’t realise they couldn’t get out by the main road.
“Now they’re all locked in and they’re saying, ‘Wow, we didn’t know this was going to happen’.”
The Marthavale-Barmouth Spur fire has been burning since November 21.
Mallacoota, one of Victoria’s most isolated towns, is hemmed by lakes and thick bushland and connected to the Princes Highway by a single paved road.
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Jo Grant, who retired to the fishing and camping mecca three years ago, was on Monday night preparing to take shelter with her husband, daughter and grandchild.
She planned to go to bed with her phone and the radio switched on but didn’t expect to get much sleep.
“We’re walking up and down and my bags are packed,’’ she told The Age. “It’s hot and it’s smoky and we’re just on the cusp of a wind change. We’re in such a vulnerable place here.”
Ms Grant said if fire threatened to overrun the town, her refuge of last resort would be the wharf area along the waterfront.
Ashleigh McMillan is a breaking news reporter at The Age. Got a story? Email me at a.mcmillan@theage.com.au
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