A big, dangerous fire on the Scenic Rim is racing towards homes, emergency services say.

November 8, 2019

Residents of one small Queensland town have two dangerous bushfires burning on either side of them, with winds expected to increase throughout a hot, dry night.

One of them is a blaze at Tarome, a rural hamlet some 80km southwest of Brisbane, that is expected to affect the little community by early evening. 

The other blaze is at Clumber and Moogerah, where a prepare to leave order has been issued.

Scenic Rim Mayor and Tarome resident Greg Christensen says the blaze near Mount Castle is within a few kilometres of his home and he’s expecting a sleepless night.

“With heavy wind conditions emergency service are saying there’s a high risk of ember attack similar to what happened at Canungra … up to five or six kilometres in front of the fire front,” he told AAP.

“Everyone will be having a watchful night, the weather conditions are hot enough and more important the humidity is so low there will be no dew point until almost dawn.”

Mr Christensen said the there was no rain on the horizon so the fire danger would remain severe for the next four days.

“The magnitude of these fires, without rain they will not be stopped.”

People were told to leave Tarome on Friday afternoon as the fire raced towards Tarome Road, Ryan Road, Simmonds Road, Hinrichsen Road, Campsite Road, Rose Road and the Cunningham Highway.

Roads were blocked and an evacuation centre was set up at nearby Aratula.

Bar manager at the Aratula Hotel, Leanne Brown, said there were actually two fires raging on either side of them – but the Tarome blaze was the most concerning due to the wind direction.

“It’s coming through fairly quickly,” she told AAP.

Ms Brown said the local sports centre had been opened as an evacuation centre and police were stopping cars going into Tarome five kilometres away.

“There’s a haze, at the moment the sun at least is yellow. It was red earlier,” she said.

“It’s quite daunting at the moment.”

Farmer Nick Moffatt said he was ready to fight the fire using irrigation sprinklers but didn’t think it would actually threaten his property despite the air being thick with smoke.

“Our grazing country is as hard as concrete so it’s not going to be hard to keep that under control,” he said.

“It’s more up the national park, back in the range and coming down off of there.”