toni gasps jesus christ. urvived, but 85 homes in her town were destroyed in the november fire. we had nearly 100 fires and probablyjust under half of them were not contained. 0n the worst of the days in november there, i think we got to 17 fires burning concurrently at emergency warning alert level. so, you're talking the highest level of risk, you're talking the highest level of exposure and the potential for the greatest loss. strong winds spread the fires across the dry forests of new south wales. a volunteer firefighter in the small town of hillville recorded his journey. it was really difficult to see. we had trees burning on either side. we were worried about them coming down. visibility was about two metres or so in front. the smoke was just so thick you just could not see through it. last summer broke records in australia. in each of its six states temperatures topped a0 degrees celsius. the intense heat helped to create mega blazes, where two or more bushfires meet. villages in the blue mountains, ju