"It rained (fire), it was like lava," she told the Herald Sun online in one of the compelling stories of survival that have transfixed Australians as the nation's worst wildfire disaster unfolds.

"You couldn't see where you were going, the only thing you could see was the road."

A resident in one of the worst-hit towns, Victoria state's Kinglake West, Smit and her partner were preparing to flee in their car when the vehicle exploded in the inferno's intense heat.

She said they had no option but to shelter with terrified neighbours as the flames bore down on them.

"We broke a window and got in under the house," she said. "About 10 of us proceeded to save the house so that we could survive... survival just kicks in."

Peter Trapp from nearby Lower Plenty, who had sent his wife and child to safety, ran to his neighbour's house after failing to save his own home from the flames.

"When I was running it radiated heat, I could feel my skin burning," the 41-year-old told the Daily Telegraph. "But you know how you don't think clearly about things?

"I'm on fire and I'm going 'oh no, I'm going to have all these scars.' I wasn't thinking about survival."

Trapp and his family made it through their ordeal, although their home was razed.

"I'm still trying to find a way to tell a three-year-old his house has burned down," he said.

Trapp was lucky but Australia's newspapers were filled with pictures of the dead and missing, a total of 173 confirmed dead that is set to rise significantly.

The poignant images were snapshots of the victims' lives, showing them celebrating weddings, clowning around in festive paper hats and smiling in class photographs.

There were pictures also of terrain reduced to a blackened moonscape stretching into the distance, and horses that survived the inferno searching for food in the charred soil.

Ian Creek told Melbourne's Age newspaper how his parents-in-law, Faye and Bill Walker, perished along with their wheelchair-bound son Geoffrey as they prepared to flee their Narbethong home.

"The last contact we had with them was 6:30 on Saturday afternoon," said Creek. "They said 'we've got to go, there's black smoke over the back of the shed.' The neighbours had rung them at 5:30 saying to get out and they didn't go."

They nearly made it. Creek said the key was in the car's ignition and the family pet had been packed into the vehicle when the flames engulfed them.

"The dog was found in the back seat," he said. "It just happened so quickly. One of the problems they had is that Geoffrey is in a wheelchair and they couldn't move too quickly."

There were rare stories of joy too. Bill and Sherrill Carta were reunited in the emergency ward of Melbourne's Alfred Hospital after becoming separated fleeing the Kinglake blaze and fearing each other was dead.

"It was a fantastic moment, it was the best moment," Sherrill Carta told Australian Associated Press.

"I grabbed him by his big toe because it looked like the only place he wasn't burned at the time."

The Telegraph ran pictures of St. Andrews resident Angela O'Connor rolling on the ground with her dog Chaz, who had been found still guarding her property two days after her house burned.

"He's an amazing boy," said O'Connor, who lost another dog in the fires.

"When the paint was peeling from the walls of the house because of the heat, he was there by our side. We're so happy to have him back."

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