CANBERRA, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Lorena Granados could always recall the day when they lost almost everything in the bushfire.
Returning to the Mogo town in southeast Australia a fortnight after the disaster, she said in a trembling voice: "That is a real disaster."
Granados and her partner were from Chile. They had been living in Mogo for 17 years.
"We owned a leather business," she said.
The fire began raging in Batemans Bay at the end of last year. But Granados, who decided to defend her home and shop, was among the last to escape.
"A friend rang me at 5 o'clock in the morning (of Dec. 31)," she told Xinhua. "It was the friend who saved our lives."
When the bushfire came, the pair were with their 12-year-old son.
"We held the fire with the hoses until we couldn't breathe," she said. "We ran for our lives."
They had some preparation: filling the car with some photo albums, food and clothes. "Then we lost everything, everything: our machines, our tools, our furniture ... " she said, fighting back tears.
She showed Xinhua a video footage she took while escaping, in which she shouted "hurry up". Fire was engulfing houses hundreds of meters away and the sky was orange like inferno.
Apart from the son, the pair have two daughters. Now they are staying with one of them. "But we don't have permanent base," said Granados.
After the fire, the two adults received from governments 1,000 Australian dollars (about 686.7 U.S. dollars) each, while the boy was given 400 dollars.
"We need finance to rebuild our house," Granados said.
She was back at the weekend to look for something useful in the debris. Luckily, her partner, Gaspar Roman, managed to find Granados's ring. They hugged in excitement. They also recovered a mug, which they wanted to take back as a souvenir.
Their house is not alone. Mogo is a small heritage town about 150 kilometers away from Australian capital Canberra, with a population of about 300. A report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said that dozens of houses were lost.
Next door to Granados's leather shop was a book store, which was only recognizable by the charred sign.
Bushfires have been burning in Australia for three months now, so far killing at least 28 people and destroying some 2,000 homes. Over 10.7 million hectares of land have been scorched across the continent.
The Australian government has announced last Wednesday an additional 58 million Australian dollars (39.9 million U.S. dollars) in support funding for bushfire-affected communities.
The funding would make more food vouchers, support services and financial assistance available to Australians affected by the ongoing crisis.
Families in bushfire-hit towns who are eligible for the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment will also receive an extra 400 Australian dollars for each child.
In recent days, rains have brought relief to some of the fire zones in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. Canberra was even hit by hailstorm on Monday.
However, Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews said the fire season is "far from over."
An unnamed firefighter Xinhua met in Mogo said they were still trying to put out the fire.
He said the mission was difficult. "We are currently in dry condition here in Australia," he said. "The temperature is really high, and the forest is really dry."
