SCENIC Rim Regional Council has opened Beaudesert Showground as a place of refuge for people escaping the bush fires across the region.
Mayor Greg Christensen said the refugee would open this afternoon.
"We're doing it for the people who decide to leave the Mount Barney and Barney View corridor," he said.
"What we don't want is for them to stop in Rathdowney. We are currently fighting five active fires of varying degrees of risk, and the various risks will come into play depending on weather conditions over the next few days."
The mayor has been on the ground, posting video updates daily of the fire situation with one of the fire fronts being a bit close to home.
"These Tarome fires happened on my childhood footprint, which has made it a bit more emotionally challenging," he said.
"We had burnt leaves to clean up Saturday morning (at home) so that was close enough.
"What we have is more than 90 kilometres of active fire front from the north-west of the Scenic Rim behind Moorang to the south-east around Mount Barney.
"We still have fires flaring up at Binna Burra from the original fire at Sarabah so we have the Beechmont fire crew keeping an eye out there.
"I'm just thinking of getting through to next Tuesday because my technical term for how Friday, Saturday and Sunday are going to be is ugly."
The mayor held a media briefing at Boonah Showground this afternoon where he appealed for Scenic Rim residents to be prepared for the challenges ahead.
He also praised the efforts of the Salvation Army who he said had been working tirelessly to keep firefighters fed and watered.
"Many of the Salvation Army are older people and one of their younger volunteers asked to put a shout-out for young people around to Boonah to register to do a shift to take the pressure off," he said.
