When a tsunami of fire swept through Australia during June 2019 and into early 2020, felling trees, closing highways, and stranding people on beaches, it was ships and their crew that came to the rescue. Mallacoota, on Victoria's south coast, was one of the worst hit areas, with the fires reaching their pinnacle on 31 December 2019. There was no way out except by sea. "At dawn the sun didn't come up and it was pitch black - that's when it hit," Mallacoota resident Charles Livingstone told local media. "The firestorm just went through here like napalm - it actually looked like the air was on fire around us. It was an inferno."
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