The rewritten town of Mallacoota, where residents were forced to evacuate by air and boat, is about an hour from Swedish Margareta Janstad's home in Merimbula, located in southern New South Wales. The fire has reached the neighboring village of Eden, which is about three miles away and people have begun to arrive from there to Merimbula to seek protection.

- We have the sea to the east. The fire is in the north, south and west, she tells SVT on Saturday.

"We packed our bags"

The Swede runs a bed and breakfast from his home and all the guests have already left, but the residents of the resort have not yet received the evacuation order.

- We packed our bags. They are in the car and we know we will take the road if we have to evacuate, says Margareta Janstad.

"The houses start to burn inside"

It is now too late to leave the resort, but there is a secure building of concrete that they can reach if needed. She lives in a wooden house herself, and in order to protect it from the fire she has taken several steps.

- We have sprinklers running on the roof and around the whole house. We have taken down all the curtains and moved the furniture away from the windows for the heat from the fire is so huge that the houses can start to burn internally before the fire has caught on, she says.

Many people believe that it is only the fires themselves that homeowners have to worry about in areas affected by forest fires. But Margareta explains that furniture and curtains near the windows can also ignite if it gets warm enough outside.

Many people also choose to stay in their houses for as long as they can to stop any sparks that come flying from starting new fires.

- Most houses that burn down in Australia are affected by sparks from burning leaves and bark that travel several kilometers and come long before the actual fire front, explains Margareta Janstad.

"Never, never"

Now it is only to wait that applies to the Swede. She says she won't sleep many hours tonight.

- We can't do anything, so now we wait. If the house remains, we are happy about it. If it does not remain, we must go elsewhere.

Margareta Janstad has lived in Australia since 2004, but has not been to anything like it.

- No, never, never. No one has seen this before. Everyone is a little shocked, she says.