The leader of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, says “catastrophic” fire conditions have almost completely razed one Australian community. 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 bushfires burning across several 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.”(BBC)…[+]