At least seven people were killed in the devastating bushfires that engulfed the Australian state of New South Wales since Monday , according to police said on Wednesday.
The latest fires, which raced towards the coast this week, have also destroyed more than 200 homes, BBC reported.
With conditions easing slightly, a major road that was closed in Victoria was reopened on Wednesday for two hours to allow people to leave.
However, many of the people remain in fire-hit areas – in one town, police dropped off 1.6 tonnes of drinking water by boat.
Earlier on Wednesday, New South Wales Rural Fire Service said 916 homes had been destroyed this season, with another 363 damaged, and 8,159 saved.
On Tuesday, a 28-year-old volunteer firefighter was killed battling a blaze on the border of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria states after a “fire tornado” upended the truck he and two others were travelling in.
Scorching temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius and high winds has seen fire fronts in this area tear through more than 200,000 hectares of dense forest in the past few days, leaving thousands trapped.
On Sunday, PM Morrison announced a compensation scheme for volunteer firefighters in New South Wales (NSW), who have been battling the catastrophic bushfires in the state.
Earlier, the New South Wales (NSW) state had declared a state of emergency, with bushfire conditions expected to worsen over the coming days as a record-breaking heatwave sweeps across the country.
In November, New South Wales’ Rural Fire Service said Thursday morning there were about 60 fires active, with 30 of them uncontained in the state where some 1,200 firefighters tried to mitigate the flames in the face of worsening conditions, such as rising temperatures and wind.
The fires have been fuelled by tinder-dry conditions after three years of drought that experts say has been exacerbated by climate change, a factor that has sparked a sharp political debate in recent days.
(With inputs from agency)