Fires are threatening remote communities across East Gippsland including Anglers Rest, Swift Creek and Omeo with a cool change bringing with it dangerous winds. Locals in Omeo were fighting spot fires as a bushfire approached from the west on Saturday afternoon. Thunderstorms caused by the fires are also fuelling destructive winds. Mr Gillham said a south-westerly wind change moving across the region was putting different communities under threat. "As the cool changes moves through, particularly in the high country areas what we are seeing is one community gets threatened by the north-west winds then when the south-west wind change comes in all it does is just turn the fire around and reactivates a different front of the fire," he said. Flames had also been fuelled by low humidity and "freakish" wind conditions "coming out of all different conditions" with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees across the region, he said.

"The conditions have tested every resource today," Mr Gillham said. "We've got one community under threat one minute, then the wind changes and we have another community under threat. "That's why we continue to tell people do not stay and try and defend if you are not prepared. Leave, now, leave early." About 50 people trapped in Omeo were flown out by three Australian Defence Force helicopters late Saturday afternoon and taken to the relief centre in Sale. There were also plans to rescue locals trapped in nearby Swift Creek. Six people remain missing in Victoria's bushfire disaster and authorities fear further homes and properties have been destroyed.

"We don't know what the impacts have been," Mr Gillham said. "We suspect there has been a number of homes lost today. We are trying to get as many people out of the Omeo and Swift Creek as we can by using Defence Force helicopters." Mr Gillham said the "aggressive fire fight" will continue well into Saturday evening, but it was hoped cooler and milder conditions due to arrive at midnight will bring some much-needed reprieve for firefighters. The sky above Mallacoota blazes red amid the fire danger. Credit:Justin McManus "We do have the right level of resources in the right locations at the moment," he said. He said firefighters battling blazes in the most remote communities across East Gippsland had been forced to pull back from fire fronts and focus on saving lives as well as assets that would keep the most isolated towns connected and ensure cut off towns had supplies to survive.

"Based on the best estimate we would say [the fires will burn] for at least another eight weeks," he said. "We are only at the beginning of summer. In a normal year we would start to see the fire season kick off in a big way around early January, but we're already up there at more than a million hectares of burnt country. We are in it for the long haul, this is a marathon event, we expect to busy for at least the next eight weeks." Mr Gillham said over the last 40 days firefighters had been able to contain the southern edge of the inferno with no impact on the town of Bairnsdale where thousands of people have fled to escape the fires. On Saturday evening, emergency authorities graded 13 fires at emergency levels, while they were advising three communities to immediately evacuate to avoid fires near them. The 13 emergency warnings were for fires in the East Gippsland region. A warning message for some of the communities affected by those fires read: “Leaving now will be deadly.”

The Wingan River fire was threatening the isolated communities of Cann River and Genoa. In Mallacoota, where the sky again turned an eerie red on Saturday afternoon, a fire remained out-of-control but not at an emergency level. Several emergency warnings were in place for fires near the Snowy River National Park, including at Gelantipy, Suggan Bugan and Goongerah Nuggan Emergency-level fires near the Alpine region including those at Benambra and Omeo, which was threatening Falls Creek. Two fires around Corryong were threatening to merge with fires across the border in NSW.

Closer to Bairnsdale at the coast, three emergency warnings were in place, including for fires at Boggy Creek, Nowa Nowa and Buchan. Loading The small town of Bruthen, hit by fires earlier in the week, were also being told to immediately evacuate. Across Bairnsdale, Lake’s Entrance and Metung, residents were being told to be vigilant, with the chance that fires further north would affect their towns. Strong winds across the region and thunderstorms - some created by weather systems produced by other fires - were causing demanding conditions for firefighters across the north-east of the state.