People have grabbed their pets and loved ones and fled from the paths of bushfires raging in Queensland.
More than 50 fires were burning at one point on Friday afternoon in dry, windy and dangerous fire conditions.
Police declared an emergency at Cooroibah and evacuated part of it as a fire threatened homes.
Noosa Mayor Tony Wellington said the situation was "very volatile" early on Friday night.
The fast-moving fire was keeping emergency services on their toes as the winds were changing direction, he said.
"It's going to be a long night, it's going to be a distressing night," Mr Wellington said. "My sympathies go out to everyone."
Noosa Pet Resort proprietor Pat Cutting had 40 dogs, six cats and her 80-year-old mother to evacuate.
"At the moment we're hosing everything and we're ready to get all the animals out of here," she told AAP as she got ready to go.
"The rural fire brigade is on the corner. If they come down the driveway it'll be 'yep, let's go'."
People in the path of a blaze at Tarome, in the Scenic Rim area, also left, some to nearby Aratula, after being warned they were in danger.
Bar manager at the Aratula Hotel, Leanne Brown, said their were two fires burning on either side of her town. But the Tarome blaze was the bigger concern due to the wind direction.
"It's coming through fairly quickly," she told AAP.
Ms Brown said the local sports centre was being used as an evacuation centre and police were stopping cars going into Tarome five kilometres away.
"It's quite daunting at the moment," she said.
Farmer Nick Moffatt was ready to fight the fire using irrigation sprinklers but didn't think it would actually threaten his property, despite the air being thick with smoke.
"Our grazing country is as hard as concrete so it's not going to be hard to keep that under control," he said.
"It's more up the national park, back in the range and coming down off of there."
Residents in Thornton, Clumber, Noosa Banks, Lower Beechmont, Laidley Creek West and Mulgowie were told to prepare to leave.
People at Buccan, south of Brisbane, were also urged to prepare to leave on Friday before fire crews contained the blaze.
The Thornton blaze in the Lockyer Valley region split into two separate fires on Friday that are travelling in different directions.
Conditions are challenging because the fire is burning in steep, rugged country.
Belts of parched land and withered bush across Queensland are raising the risk of bushfire.
But conditions will improve later on Friday and early Saturday, the Bureau of Meteorology says.
"Today will be the peak of the worst fire dangers and conditions will ease tomorrow," meteorologist Jess Gardner said on Friday.
"They will remain quite challenging as we continue to see a very, very dry air mass and some fairly fresh winds."
Australian Associated Press
