Lilydale opened a relief centre, seeing evacuees make use of the space as they wait to learn the fates of their properties and townships.
Cars, some towing trailers of items, vans, people and their animals were continuing to flow into the Lilydale High School stadium car park at 6.40pm on Friday 9 January.
The centre provided basic relief with tea and coffee facilities, beds, a kids’ area and animal housing.
Support services from Yarra Ranges Council, The Salvation Army emergency relief team and Animal Aid were on-site to direct and help people as needed.
For people with larger camper vans, trailers or caravans, the Lilydale Recreation Reserve was open and able to accommodate the vehicles.
The relief centre was closed on Sunday and pivoted to an information centre on Monday 12 January. It will remain open until required and will be staffed by Yarra Ranges Council and the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing from 9am-4.30pm.
As of 5.15pm on Friday, more townships, including Marysville and Narbethong, were told to leave immediately.
A warning at 5.42pm instructed residents in Castella, all of Kinglake, Pheasant Creek and Toolangi to prepare to leave and to leave as soon as they were ready, as roads would become busy as people leave.
At around 5.30pm a fleet of CFA tankers, led by a forward command vehicle, was headed up Maroondah Highway towards Healesville and likely further to assist in firefighting efforts.
A wind change was expected around 8pm on Friday 9 January, causing the fire to change direction to the north east, heading back towards Strathbogie. Conditions were predicted to become very dangerous and unpredictable, according to VicEmergency.
Wind conditions were picking up, seeing debris on roads around Lilydale, Wandin and Seville, and some lightning strikes spotted heading towards Lilydale along the Warburton Highway at around 6pm on Friday.
In the Dandenong Ranges, resident weather authority Stuart Coombs advised that people who left earlier on Friday should remain off the mountain until later on Saturday, with the risk of falling trees, lightning and wind gusts of 90km/h expected during the southwest cool change.
Temperatures did drop rapidly from about 5.15pm onwards, getting down to about 29 degrees in Healesville and 25 degrees in Monbulk after the scorching 41 degrees or more recorded throughout the day.
