NEW SOUTH WALES, Australia - The leader of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, says "catastrophic" fire conditions have almost completely razed one Australian community to the ground.
She said there was "not much left" of the town of Balmoral, south-west of Sydney, where about 400 people live.
Firefighters are struggling to contain wildfires burning across three states amid dry and hot conditions.
One Balmoral resident, Steve Harrison, shared his dramatic story of surviving the destructive blaze.
"I ran to my [vehicle] but my garden was already on fire here, and the driveway was on fire and the road was on fire, so I realised I couldn't evacuate," the 67-year-old artist told ABC.
"So the day before I had actually built myself a small kiln down the back. A coffin-sized kiln, just big enough for me to crawl inside. I hid in there for half an hour while the fire storm went over."
Since September, Australia's bushfire emergency has killed at least nine people, destroyed hundreds of homes and scorched millions of hectares of land.
On Saturday Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison apologised for causing "great anxiety" by going on holiday during the mounting crisis.
A number of small towns have reportedly sustained significant damage this weekend.
Balmoral was hit, for the second time in days, as wind conditions changed around the Green Wattle Creek fire on Saturday.(FA)
