Harrowing dashcam footage from the Australian bushfires has been posted online by a NSW fire brigade.
The video captures vehicles from the Davidson Rural Fire Brigade driving straight through the middle of a raging bushfire in Rainbow Flat near Taree on Thursday last week.
"Some heartbreaking stories coming out of yesterday’s fire activity on the Mid-North Coast," the Facebook post summary reads.
"This dash cam footage from one of our trucks shows the extremely challenging fire behaviour and terrain crews were faced with, in this instance, while attempting to reach remote properties to search for people.
"The water you can see streaming down the windscreen is our ‘overrun’ sprays, designed to prevent the truck from catching fire itself in such situations," it concludes.
The NSW Rural Fire Service have confirmed at least 50 homes were damaged or destroyed yesterday, with RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons admitting firefighters were "deflated" by the losses.
More than 3000 firefighters are battling the blazes, which officials warn are catastrophic and life-threatening.
A strong southerly front has caused worsening conditions for firefighters battling "volatile" conditions in NSW, with high winds sparking 300 new fire fronts and destroying more properties.
"A lot of detailed work, a lot of building impact assessment teams will be getting out in and around these fire grounds, in these burnt-out areas, when it is safe to do so, trying to take stock of exactly what has been lost, where it's been lost," Mr Fitzsimmons told reporters today.
"We will update people not just on what's been lost, but, most importantly, critically importantly, for communities, the firefighters themselves, who feel so deflated, who feel such sadness and despair at seeing so much loss."
Kelly McLoughlin left her home this morning, with fire likely to rip through her property.
Strong winds have pushed the fire at Hillville, in northern NSW near Taree, in a northwesterly direction along with blazes in other regions, as fires destroyed hundreds of thousands of hectares of bush.
No lives were lost yesterday, authorities say, and no one is missing. However three people have died since the fires ramped up on Friday and more than 300 homes have been destroyed since that time.
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