Hundreds of central Queenslanders have fled or are being urged to flee from a monster bushfire with 12 metre high flames that has already engulfed at least two houses.
Firefighters were battling more than 70 bushfires around the state on Monday, with the worst an inferno between Gladstone and Bundaberg that has already destroyed two homes although no injuries have been reported.
At 5pm on Monday that fire was affecting the Deepwater community and was expected to start to impact Baffle Creek, Rules Beach and Oyster Creek.
Fire and Emergency Services Minister Craig Crawford has declared a disaster area for Baffle Creek Catchment, Wartburg, Deepwater, Agnes Water, Round Hill, Miriam Vale and Bororen.
People have either left or were being ordered to leave to seek shelter with family or friends or two evacuation centres.
The Deepwater area bushfire has a perimeter of 66 kilometres and has burned 17,000 hectares.
Queensland Fire Commissioner Katarina Carroll said they were fighting the blazes around the state in unprecedented heatwave conditions.
"The next seven days are extremely concerning for us," she told reporters on Monday.
Two homes lost
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Queensland had not before seen the like of these conditions.
Hot, dry, erratic winds mean the blaze is highly unpredictable and fanned flames more than 10 metres high as winds escalated.
Earlier, fire service inspector Andrew Sturges said everything was being thrown at the fire, but warned: "Under some conditions, we can't suppress the fire."
"The fire front is the easy part, we can see that and manage it," fire service operations director Paul Smeath has told locals at a midday meeting in nearby Agnes Water.
"It's the ember storms that happen back behind it (that are difficult)."
More than 45 ground crews and seven water bombers, including a Boeing 737 capable of dumping 20,000 litres of water, were fighting the fires.
Firefighters warn of 10-metre flames
Agnes Waters local Synon Holland had seen fire crews shield two nearby homes on Monday afternoon, hours after waking to see flames not far from his own property.
"It's almost the perfect firestorm for us ... it's not a surprise but we didn't initially expect it to have the impact that it has had," he told AAP.
"I just helped the neighbour over the road put out a grassfire in front of his house that had reignited," Mr Holland said.
Mr Holland said the 100 firefighters coming from NSW on Tuesday would bring a welcome relief.
"The fatigue is really starting to set in on some of these guys because they had a huge day yesterday, they've had a few hours sleep last night and then a huge day again today on multiple fronts," he added.
Locals forced to flee their homes have been met with an outpouring of support on social media from residents offering to house pets and families.
Others have expressed their gratitude to the crews battling the blaze on the ground.
There will be a community meeting at 1800 on Monday at Agnes Waters.
NSW firefighters sent to relieve crews
NSW is sending 100 firefighters north to support exhausted crews, and they're due to arrive early on Tuesday.
Two evacuation centres are open at Miriam Vale and Agnes Water, but only a handful of people are there at this stage, with most opting to stay with family and friends.
Debra and Bob Wait said they feared they would die when the fire encroached on their Deepwater Road property.
"I reckon another five minutes and we would've been dead because we couldn't breathe," Ms Wait has told the ABC.
"It burnt all the hairs off my arms when I raced down the paddock to let other horses out it was just raining little white pieces of ash."
The Wartburg State School at Baffle Creek is closed due to the fire.
Source AAP - SBS
