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HOBART - Residents in bushfire ravaged Scamander have told how they fled for their lives as a fireball enveloped the township.
At least 14 houses were lost in the blaze which swept through the town, on Tasmania's north-east coast last night.
Shocked residents were this morning trying to
make sense of the destruction as authorities worked to assess the damage and restore power and phone services.
And for those lucky to escape the flames, there are fears the emergency may not be over yet.
Sue Brown fled her home last night as the bushfire raged and was relieved to find the house, in Silver Street, still standing today.
"It was terrifying, I just grabbed my dog and my daughter and we went," Ms Brown told AAP.
"It was very smokey, you could hear houses exploding and trees going down, you could see the flames roaring up over the hill.
"We're very lucky, there's a lot of other people that have lost their houses, we were very lucky but they do say it's not over yet."
That is the feeling elsewhere in Scamander where some residents are bracing for the worst.
Annette Halton in Scamander Avenue watched this morning as the fire raged behind her property, hosing down the back fence to keep the flying embers at bay.
"All we can see is smoke and up behind (the house) we can actually hear the flames roaring," Ms Halton said.
"I have got my car packed with all the essentials and I'm ready to go if I have to, it's just too hard to say what to do. At the moment, we're staying put, it's not good."
Don Doran, also in Scamander Avenue, was this morning on standby to evacuate.
Mr Doran said he knew people who had lost their homes and wasn't taking any chances. The car was packed and his two dogs were ready to go.
"I have been watering the roof and putting out embers that are flying around because the ground is so dry -- we've had no rain," he said.
"I'm not afraid because when the time comes I'm making a run for it."
Another Scamander Avenue resident, who didn't want to be named, returned home today to no power but a house that was otherwise intact.
She said the area was still smouldering, and helicopters were hovering as firefighters continued to monitor the fire.
"We could see the flames going, we thought our house was gone, but fortunately it wasn't," she said.
Australia's fire season took a turn for the worse after fires raged across three states.
In Tasmania, fires destroyed 23 houses while lightning strikes caused blazes that last night threatened homes to the west of Sydney before being damped down.
The fires come as firefighters fear that two bushfires burning out of control in Victoria's north-east have joined up to create a massive firefront.
Temperatures have soared to above 40 degrees Celsius in New South Wales and Victoria.
In Tasmania, a firestorm pushed by fierce winds burned houses outside the beachside town of Scamander.
The Victorian bushfires have scorched about 250,000 hectares and continue to burn out of control.
Firefighters' worst fears have been realised, with two bushfires burning in Gippsland and Victoria's north-east believed to have joined overnight, forming one massive firefront.
The head of the blaze is estimated to span 240km in length.
A spokesperson said the fires were believed to have merged last night but the department was awaiting confirmation.
Another spokesman, Benjamin White, said the fires remained very active overnight.
"We're expecting that the two major fire complexes, being the north-east Alpine region and the Gippsland region, to have joined overnight," he told ABC radio.
"We'll expect with the weather conditions for the coming days -- north to north-westerly wind change -- to continue to fan the fires."
The blazes of most concern are those close to Mount Beauty, Jamieson and Whitfield in the state's north-east and around Dargo in east Gippsland.
Firefighters took advantage of cooler conditions yesterday to try and build containment lines around the bushfire ahead of severe fire weather expected to return tomorrow.
The weather had cooled and on the higher peaks of the alpine country, the temperature had plunged into the negatives.
"That's good for us for overnight," said a spokesperson for firefighters. "That will actually enable, providing the conditions are right, to undertake backburning operations and work on control lines."
The biggest fire is the North East fire, stretching from Whitfield to Cheshunt, Mt Buffalo and south into the alps, which has burnt 120,000 hectares.
Urgent-threat messages were issued for the area of Waterford in north-east Victoria, where residents were expected to experience ember attack and resulting spot fires.
- AAP
