Bushfires have turned the Victorian holiday village of Halls Gap into a ghost town, as residents evacuate and fire trucks move in to battle a blaze that has already claimed one life.
The 21,000-hectare bushfire burning in the Grampians region killed a woman in her Roses Gap home on Friday and is now bearing down on Halls Gap.
Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said the fire has a 12km convection column which is generating its own weather conditions.
"As we speak they are having lightning in the area generated by that convection column, they are having spot fires dropping in and around Halls Gap."
The fire front was about two kilometres north of Halls Gap by about 4pm.
Halls Gap and a number of surrounding towns were told to evacuate.
Most Halls Gap residents heeded the warning issued at 10am (AEDT) on Friday, Mr Lapsley said.
Police have reported that 116 of the 173 Halls Gap residents asked to evacuate via a town meeting or a police doorknock had left.
Mr Lapsley said he was pleased so many residents fled.
"(Evacuation) is occurring in the main but some have elected to stay and protect their properties, they have the right to do so if they are an owner ... but they also take on that risk themselves," he said.
"They risk the fact that these fires will be very intense and erratic this afternoon."
One of those residents was Rohan McDonald, owner of the Halls Gap Lakeside Tourist Park.
Mr McDonald said a massive plume of smoke resembling an atomic bomb blast was visible in the town.
He said his 100 campsites and 20 cabins have evacuated.
"They all started leaving last night when they saw the big red glow on top of the mountain," he told AAP.
Mr McDonald said he would stay and defend the park.
"She's all nice and green and we've got about 30 or 40 sprinklers on the building," he said.
"I think this wind change is going to be pretty bad. It is getting real smokey."
Some tourists were still keen to go bushwalking, while a bus load of tourists asked if they could use the park's swimming pool, Mr McDonald said.
"Just totally oblivious to the fact we are covered in smoke, there is a massive plume that looks like an atomic bomb has gone off over the top of the mountain," he said.
Mr Lapsley said Halls Gap will burn, but fire trucks have moved into the town to limit the damage.
"There is a fair chance of losing property and even if people are caught in the wrong space, life could be lost," he said.
As well as the emergency warnings applying for the northern Grampians areas that were warned to evacuate, one was also issued for the Black Range, Mokepilly and Rhymney, west of Halls Gap, effective 3.30pm.
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