More than 500 people crammed into the Moruya Golf Club auditorium on Wednesday, anxious to hear if they would face their third firefront of the summer in the coming days. And the news wasn't entirely positive.
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The mercury is expected to climb dramatically at the South Coast town on Friday, with warm and windy conditions forecast.
While there are significant protective resources gathered around Moruya, the winds will come out of the north-west on Friday, where the Clyde Mountain fire, which previously hit areas around Batemans Bay, Rosedale, and Malua Bay, is expected to march southward.
North Moruya has already seen some fire activity and aerial water-bombing suppression and Friday's freshening winds are expected to again drive the fire toward the coast.
To the north-west of Moruya, off Larry's Mountain Road near Mogendoura, a backburn was started by the NSW Rural Fire Service to take advantage of the benign conditions on Wednesday afternoon.
Moruya's deputy incident controller, Alan Henderson, said the goal of the backburn was to try to set up a protective zone across the north-west flank of the Mogendoura Valley, with the secondary goal of hopefully setting up a buffer for an industrial area and power substation.
Eurobodalla Mayor Liz Innes and local emergency management officer Warren Sharpe both addressed the crowd at length, asking people in the outlying western and north-western areas of Moruya to leave by late Thursday night and head into town.
"If you live in a rural or bush area outside those exposed areas, then Thursday will be your last chance to leave," Ms Innes said.
"We would greatly encourage people to do so. Built-up areas, such as the town centre and the structures around here, are the safest places to be."
The basketball stadium in the showgrounds on Albert Street, is Moruya's designated evacuation centre. People with camping equipment may camp on the grounds of the centre.
Mr Shape warned residents using the evacuation centre to "not expect the Hilton Hotel". "Bring your own bedding," he said.
"Come prepared to stay for a little while. You'll be safe and you will be fed. And as soon as we know that's it safe for you to head home, that's what we will want you to do."
After Friday's winds freshen north-westerly throughout the day, a front is expected from the south about midnight.
Mr Sharpe described it as a "monumental effort" to reduce the shire of its normally huge visitor population and said this was necessary to take pressure off all the support systems and infrastructure.
The town water supply for North Moruya is now drawing directly from the river and people are being asked to boil the water before drinking it. South of the river, the town water supply is as normal.
"One of the main power lines running into the shire has been damaged but the crews are working on getting that back on line. The power supply is back to most areas," he said.
"All in all, we're going OK. There's a lot of people working behind the scenes to keep things running but we would ask for people to be patient as we work through this next difficult fire danger period."
Tuross Heads residents have been advised to remain in place. The RFS has advised that if fire reaches the village, firefighting crews will be there to defend.
