UPDATE:
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The fire was downgraded to advice at 4.47pm.
RFS advise that conditions across the fireground have eased and the immediate threat to properties has reduced with it.
The fire is still burning in a westerly direction south of Gwydir Hwy in the Shannon Vale Road area, and firfighting crews and aircraft continue to battle to slow its spread.
EARLIER:
Residents living in the Shannon Vale area should consider fleeing the oncoming Kangawalla fire, according to the RFS.
But a spokesperson for the service said they have hopes conditions may ease in time for residents of the 20 properties in its path to return for dinner.
The Kangawalla fire, which started on the weekend, has burned up around 640 hectares of bush in the Eimers Road area.
RFS crews were containing the blaze earlier today when it changed direction and started spotting towards the west. It's now bearing down on properties near the Shannon Vale road.
Homeowners were told to head for a safe location towards Glen Innes if they didn't have a fire plan, or to make a decision to leave or to stand and fight if they had one.
Now is the safest time to leave, a spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the RFS said the decision to issue a watch and act warning and send out an emergency alert was "preemptive" - just in case. But hopes are the fire will hit droughted land and run out of fuel, or conditions will improve with nightfall.
"As it does come out of the forested area towards those private properties we're hoping it will even self-extinguish because there's not much fuel on the ground there for it to burn through," she said.
"It is looking good as it gets to that point but we just didn't want to take that risk and have people there if it does take a run now."
Some 15 trucks or so are battling the blaze at the moment, plus aircraft and bulldozers and other heavy equipment.
The RFS spokesperson said the fire season is going to be a tough one for the entire state and the New England region.
"Unfortunately our resources are already stretched and we are already seeing continuous dry conditions and we don't have any significant rainfall predicted in the future.
"So we are looking at a protracted fire season."
There are currently 88 incidents marked on the Fires Near Me app, with an emergency fire burning out of control near Crestwood Drive Port Macquarie.
Several properties in Tenterfield were wrecked by a sudden blaze that sparked in the first week of Spring, the earliest, worst fires the region has ever seen. Properties near Wytaliba were at "panic stations" while attempting to control another fire in September.
The town of Glen Innes has been covered in a pall of smoke most of today.
The fire is currently at watch and act level and is being controlled. RFS said the fire may have eased within hours depending on weather and fire activity, but crews will continue to battle the blaze overnight.