Australia is teetering on the edge of a humanitarian crisis as remote communities remain cut off from medical help, water sources are compromised and food and fuel supplies run low.
A Navy ship that delivered emergency supplies to Haiti following the 2010 earthquake has left Sydney and is expected to reach the waters off the fire-stricken town of Mallacoota, Victoria, on Thursday.
HMAS Choules will provide relief to 4,000 people who remain stranded in the seaside town after it was devastated by bushfires.
On New Year's Eve residents and tourists fled to Mallacoota's beach, ready to throw themselves in the water to protect themselves from the flames while the sky turned an apocalyptic red.
There are concerns that the town's water supply has now become contaminated due to the fires, and residents have been told to boil water until it can be tested.
Water supplies in towns in both Victoria and New South Wales have been affected by the fires.
On Tuesday boil notices were issued for Quaama, Cobargo, Bermagui, Beauty Point, Fairhaven, Wallaga Lake, Wallaga Lake Heights, Wallaga Lake Koori Village and Akolele after disinfection infrastructure was lost.
Power was restored to 11,000 homes in New South Wales' South Coast on Wednesday but more than 30,000 people are still without electricity or internet.
People who had suffered horrific burns or were injured in the fires were forced to wait for more than 24 hours until they were rescued by the Navy as roads remain closed.
A 42-year-old man was rescued by a Navy helicopter from Cadgee, south of Moruya, and a 49-year-old woman and 23-year-old woman were rescued from Nowra.
Although some roads reopened on Wednesday, including the Princes Highway, the main road running through the fire affected region, some will remain closed for weeks.
NSW Premier Glayds Berejiklian said that trees had fallen on roads and had become welded to the bitumen making the task of clearing highways even more difficult.
There are concerns that food supplies will deplete quickly with no way to deliver more food.
On Wednesday more than 300 residents were seen queuing outside a Woolworths in Ulladulla, which has experienced power outages.
In the town of Tura Beach there were long queues of people waiting to fill up on petrol and to get supplies at the supermarket.
One woman called Kerry told the ABC: 'A car queue of 50 waiting to get petrol and people in Woolworths clearing the shelves … apocalyptic.'
Local petrol stations have been forced to post signs letting residents know they've been run completely dry of petrol - while others simply don't have any power to operate.
Conditions improved on Wednesday for firefighters but RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons warned of hellish weather this weekend.
'We are getting indications with the forecast for Saturday that it is going to present a broader geographic area worse than what we saw yesterday in terms of fire danger,' he said.
'We all need to prepare ourselves for more challenging conditions.'
He said the fires would dominate a vast area from the south eastern corner of NSW up to Illawara and Shoalhaven. Tourists were warned to get out while they still could.
Eight people have died in bushfires since Monday, seven in New South Wales and one in Victoria.
NSW Police confirmed a total of seven people have been killed and two are unaccounted for in the South Coast bushfires since Monday.
The deaths include dairy farmer Patrick Salway, 29, and his father Robert, 63, who died trying to save their property in Cobargo, near Bega.
Young father and volunteer firefighter Samuel McPaul, 28, was also among those confirmed dead after he was killed by a fire tornado.
A 70-year-old man was found dead outside a home at Yatte Yattah, west of Lake Conjola, on Tuesday night, while another man's body was found in a burnt vehicle on a road off the Princes Highway at Yatte Yattah Wednesday morning.
The body of a man was found in a vehicle on Wandra Road at Sussex Inlet about 11.30am Wednesday but is yet to be formally identified, while a seventh body was found outside a home Coolagolite, about 10km east of Cobargo, on Wednesday.
Beloved great-grandfather Mick Roberts, 67, from Buchan, in East Gippsland, as found dead at his home on Wednesday morning.
NSW Police confirmed a total of seven people have been killed and two are unaccounted for in the South Coast bushfires since Monday.
The deaths include dairy farmer Patrick Salway, 29, and his father Robert, 63, who died trying to save their property in Cobargo, near Bega.
Young father and volunteer firefighter Samuel McPaul, 28, was also among those confirmed dead after he was killed by a fire tornado.
A 70-year-old man was found dead outside a home at Yatte Yattah, west of Lake Conjola, on Tuesday night, while another man's body was found in a burnt vehicle on a road off the Princes Highway at Yatte Yattah Wednesday morning.
The body of a man was found in a vehicle on Wandra Road at Sussex Inlet about 11.30am Wednesday but is yet to be formally identified, while a seventh body was found outside a home Coolagolite, about 10km east of Cobargo, on Wednesday.
Beloved great-grandfather Mick Roberts, 67, from Buchan, in East Gippsland, as found dead at his home on Wednesday morning.
NSW Police confirmed a total of seven people have been killed and two are unaccounted for in the South Coast bushfires since Monday.
The deaths include dairy farmer Patrick Salway, 29, and his father Robert, 63, who died trying to save their property in Cobargo, near Bega.
Young father and volunteer firefighter Samuel McPaul, 28, was also among those confirmed dead after he was killed by a fire tornado.
A 70-year-old man was found dead outside a home at Yatte Yattah, west of Lake Conjola, on Tuesday night, while another man's body was found in a burnt vehicle on a road off the Princes Highway at Yatte Yattah Wednesday morning.
The body of a man was found in a vehicle on Wandra Road at Sussex Inlet about 11.30am Wednesday but is yet to be formally identified, while a seventh body was found outside a home Coolagolite, about 10km east of Cobargo, on Wednesday.
Beloved great-grandfather Mick Roberts, 67, from Buchan, in East Gippsland, as found dead at his home on Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, a 72-year-old man is unaccounted for at Belowra, 50km north-west of Cobargo.
An 81-year-old woman who was missing from Conjola Park was found alive on Wednesday.
This bushfire season NSW has lost more than 1,000 homes have been razed and entire towns, including Mogo and Cobargo have been destroyed.
At least 110 fires are still burning across New South Wales, with seven burning at a watch and act warning level. More than 40 significant bushfires are still burning in Victoria.
Four remain missing after the inferno tore through East Gippsland this week.
The Australian Defence Force are helping to respond to fires raging in Victoria's East Gippsland where four people are missing in blazes which have destroyed at least 43 homes.
In addition to the homes and lives lost, those who remain are faced with increasingly stretched resources.
More than 30 fires are still burning in the state of Tasmania, with at least seven of those of significance.
One home has been destroyed during the blazes, which have decimated 8,000 hectares of land.
Two people died in South Australian fires in late December after an out-of-control fire tore through the Adelaide Hills.
He was remembered by family and friends as a doting and generous man.
2019/2020 FIRE SEASON DEATH TOLL
NSW Police confirmed a total of seven people have been killed and two are unaccounted for in the South Coast bushfires since Monday.
The recent deaths include dairy farmer Patrick Salway, 29, and his father Robert, 63, who died trying to save their property in Cobargo, near Bega.
A 70-year-old man was found dead outside a home at Yatte Yattah, west of Lake Conjola, on Tuesday night, while another man's body was found in a burnt vehicle on a road off the Princes Highway at Yatte Yattah Wednesday morning.
The body of a man was found in a vehicle on Wandra Road at Sussex Inlet about 11.30am Wednesday but is yet to be formally identified, while a seventh body was found outside a home Coolagolite, about 10km east of Cobargo, on Wednesday.
Beloved great-grandfather Mick Roberts, 67, from Buchan, in East Gippsland, was found dead at his home on Wednesday morning.
On Sunday, young father and volunteer firefighter Samuel McPaul, 28, was fighting a blaze in Jingellic, in Green Valley, about 70km east of Albury on the border of NSW and Victoria, when the truck he was in rolled, killing him instantly.
Two other firefighters died on December 19 after a tree fell on their truck while they were travelling through Buxton, south of Sydney.
Andrew O'Dwyer, 36, and Geoffrey Keaton, 32, were later named as the volunteers involved in the tragic accident the following day.
Both men were young fathers and had volunteered with the Horsley Park Rural Fire Service brigade for more than a decade.
Two people also died in South Australian fires before Christmas, including 69-year-old engineer Ron Selth.
His body was found in his Charleston home, which was destroyed by the Cudlee Creek blaze on December 21.
Another person died in a fiery car crash on the same day.
In early November, just weeks into the horror fire season which has been baring down on the nation for months, three people perished in northern NSW.
George Nole's body was found in a burnt out car near his home in Glen Innes while 63-year-old Julie Fletcher's body was pulled from a scorched building in Johns River, north of Taree.
Vivian Chaplain, a 69-year-old woman from Wytaliba, succumbed to her injuries in hospital after attempting in vain to save her home and animals from the blaze.
The fourth victim was named just days later as 58-year-old Barry Parsons.
His body was discovered in bushland on the southern end of the Kyuna Track at Willawarrin, near Kempsey, on November 13.
77-year-old Bob Lindsey and 68-year-old Gwen Hyde were found in their burned out property on October 9th.