Brunner described the terrifying scenes in Beaufort.

“From our place I looked outside and it was just black. It was unbelievable,” she said. “So dark,it was,and it just kept moving through the town.”

The couple initially went to an evacuation point at Beaufort Lake – but after 30 minutes police told them to move on to the Wendouree relief centre as the fire bore down.

“They actually closed that evacuation centre,” Koeleman said. “Embers were landing everywhere and there were spot fires everywhere.”

The couple had to leave their pet cat in Beaufort.

“We didn’t have anything to put her in,” Brunner said. “We left her outside because we figured she’s got more of a chance[of survival] outside than locked in the house.”

Beaufort bird rescuer Jasmine Broadbent was wrangling more than 100 wild and domestic birds – including macaws,lorikeets,cockatoos,pigeons and canaries at the Wendouree centre on Thursday night.

“There’s anywhere between 100 and 150 birds we got out,” she toldThe Age.

The exhausted Broadbent – who only recently moved her bird rescue organisation,AviRescue Victoria,to Beaufort – spent hours on Thursday getting the birds from their aviaries to the safety of Wendouree oval.

Short of cages,Broadbent said a number of the birds were loose in the minibus that was driven by her cousin to the relief centre.

“One was sitting on his shoulder,” she said.

Two other rescuers – Mel Vincent and Lisa Redford – heeded the call for help and made their way from Melbourne,while other volunteers arrived at the reserve to take some birds home temporarily.

“The birds are affected by smoke – they’re very sensitive,” said Broadbent. “We knew we had to act early.”

Pyrenees Shire councillor David Clark,whose home is near the Beaufort fire,said council offices had been evacuated and staff told to go home at his municipality. He said the blaze was the biggest he could remember in the area.

“We’ve had fires around here but never this close to home,” he said.

A relief centre set up in Beaufort earlier on Thursday was later closed. “That came under direct threat,” Clark said.

He was unaware if any houses or sheds had been burned,but he expected there could be some property losses.

“I’m pretty worried for Beaufort,” he said.

The fire resulted in the closure of the Western Highway in both directions between Ballarat and Ararat. Some V/Line services were also suspended.

The premier said the fire near Beaufort was of “grave concern” and it had been a difficult day for fire conditions.

“Our thoughts are with those Victorians who are directly impacted,” she said.

Almost 30 hospital patients were evacuated to Ballarat from small urgent care and aged care beds from the Beaufort and Skipton Health Service.

And while many parents of students at Beaufort Primary and Beaufort Secondary picked their children up early on Thursday,the state government reported 29 students remained at the schools when the evacuation notice was issued. As a result,29 students were bussed to the Ballarat relief centre.

The government said there were no preemptive Friday school closures,but that would depend on weather overnight.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told radio station 3AW it was “quite extraordinary” there had been fires and floods recently in Victoria.

Allan confirmed more than 600 Victorian homes and businesses were still without power following last week’s strong wind gusts.

The government said as of 5pm today,an additional 2171 electricity customers were without power as a result of the fire and wind conditions. Of those,59 properties are “power dependent”,the industry term for needing electricity for health reasons.