Victorians urged to evacuate Otways as massive fire threatens to spread east towards more than 1,000 homes

A Carlisle River Fire Brigade truck. All visitor sites in the Great Otway national park and Victoria’s state forests have been closed until further notice with severe heat forecast. Photograph: Krystal May

Residents of more than 1,000 homes in Victoria have been urged to leave before sunset in anticipation of a massive fire spreading and the onset of a severe heatwave.

Six fires were burning across the state on Monday afternoon, and authorities were concerned that Tuesday’s heatwave conditions and forecast northerly winds could cause the fire in the Otways to spread as far as Lorne.