Firies calm and collected at Orroral Valley blaze's outskirts

On the immediate outskirts of the Orroral Valley fireground late Friday afternoon, smoke choked a media pack as water bombers roared overhead.

Red flames flickered between hills in the distance; but a few minutes away, in the under-threat township of Tharwa, the atmosphere was calm and collected.

About 7pm, a couple of dozen firefighters - most hailing from the NSW and the ACT, but a few from interstate - gathered with eskies at Tharwa's general merchant.

One volunteer said they'd been there on standby since about 2pm; another said they arrived about 12pm, just as the ACT's chief minister declared a state of emergency.

The sign on the door read "open", but no one attended the cash register. The owner might be around, one volunteer said, but he also could have left a while ago.

Local Vikki Kobold and her two daughters, Brooke Kobold, 17, and Courtney Kobold, 14, came by the shop to visit a family friend who is fighting the fires. They live down Smiths Road in The Angle, which is under threat from flames, but have a lot of faith in local crews and will try to protect their property.

"Our grass is now green, we have lots of water, and there's so many fire trucks down Smiths Road at the moment," Vikki Kobold said.

"I'm more worried about tomorrow ... because [according to predictions] we'll be right in the middle of the firing line - but, we've been up lots and checking on things.

"Brooke and my husband, Peter, are both Rural Fire Service volunteers, so they know how to deal with it."

The village was otherwise quiet. Vikki Kobold suggested residents were staying inside their homes to avoid the heat. Firies seemed to laud a cool change, and people manning road blocks waved on the way out of Tharwa.

A couple of military vehicles hauling dozers were stationed a few minutes out of the town. Strong winds were expected to persist through Friday night, and gusts of up to 45km/h were set to hit elevated areas of the fireground on Saturday morning.

One firefighter at Tharwa said they could stay at the town's general merchant until about midnight Friday. If they were needed elsewhere, the standby crew would move with the fire, he said.