Thursday will be the most significant day of fire danger across the state since Black Summer in 2019, with 100kmh winds bringing extremely dangerous conditions.
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The Country Fire Authority declared Thursday a day of Total Fire Ban. No fires could be lit and people in risk areas were urged to activate their bushfire plans.
People are being urged to postpone Boxing Day travel plans by a day to avoid risk on the roads if fires break out.
State Control Centre spokesman Luke Hegarty said the winds would be a factor in containing fires but reducing the likelihood of their spread.
On Wednesday, December 25, crews battled fires in the Grampians, and an emergency warning was issued for Moyston and Pomonal after 3pm.
"The three fires that we've been dealing with for the last week or so have the real potential to spread tomorrow despite the work of crews," Mr Hegerty said.
"The reality is when you get those strong winds, all it takes is one tree to fall down across the control line and that's another fire that can start to run spot fires ahead of the main fire.
"Anything that gets going tomorrow will be very difficult to control and we're really not expecting to see a reduction in the risk until in some parts of the state on Saturday."
Mr Hegarty said across the state, they hadn't seen extreme fire danger in eight out of nine districts for a long time, and it would be impacted by people starting to travel.
He said a concern was people travelling to areas they were unfamiliar with and seeing smoke or flames.
"We just want them to make good decisions, so the advice we've been saying is just stay home for tomorrow," he said.
"Delay your travel by a day so that you get to the other side safely and comfortably, rather than tomorrow's going to be windy."
The fire has the largest number of fire crews working on it, with other crews moving into central Victoria.
Mr Hegerty said CFA strike teams would be strategically positioned ready to go to support existing fires if they start to increase in intensity or if new ones energy.
More than 100 firefighters are coming from NSW, ACT, Queensland and Tasmania, including incident management teams.
Emily Sweet
Emily Sweet is managing editor of The Courier, with 20 years of experience in regional journalism. Born in the Ballarat region, raised on the farm and passionate about our community. Email me at emily.sweet@acm.media
