Firefighters brace for hellish conditions to return to Australia on Friday

By Brittany Chain for Daily Mail Australia

A total of 10 people have been killed in the New South Wales bushfires since last Monday, taking the total death toll across the nation to 26. 

A 71-year-old man became the latest casualty of the bushfire crisis after he was found on a burnt-out property in Nerrigundah on the south coast of NSW.

David Harrison, a 47-year-old man from Canberra, suffered a heart attack defending his friend’s home on Saturday, January 4.

The recent deaths also include dairy farmer Patrick Salway, 29, and his father Robert, 63, who died trying to save their property in Cobargo, near Bega. 

An off-duty RFS firefighter, believed to be 72-year-old Colin Burns, was found near a car in Belowra after the NYE fires swept through.  

Forest Fire Management firefighter Mat Kavanagh was killed Friday January 3 when he was involved in a two-car crash on the Goulburn Valley Highway.

Another person died on December 29 from serious burns sustained in a fire in November. 

Well-known outback pilot Dick Lang and his son, Adelaide surgeon Clayton Lang, died in the Kangaroo Island bushfire after their car was trapped by flames. 

A 70-year-old man was found dead outside a home at Yatte Yattah, west of Lake Conjola, on Tuesday night, while another man’s body was found in a burnt vehicle on a road off the Princes Highway at Yatte Yattah Wednesday morning. 

The body of a man was found in a vehicle on Wandra Road at Sussex Inlet about 11.30am Wednesday but is yet to be formally identified.

A seventh body was found outside a home Coolagolite, about 10km east of Cobargo, on Wednesday. 

Beloved great-grandfather Mick Roberts, 67, from Buchan, in East Gippsland, was found dead at his home on Wednesday morning. 

Second generation timber worker Fred Becker was the second person who died in Victoria. He suffered a heart attack while trying to defend his Maramingo Creek home. 

On Sunday, young father and volunteer firefighter Samuel McPaul, 28, was fighting a blaze in Jingellic, in Green Valley, about 70km east of Albury on the border of NSW and Victoria, when the truck he was in rolled, killing him instantly. 

Two other firefighters died on December 19 after a tree fell on their truck while they were travelling through Buxton, south of Sydney.  

Andrew O’Dwyer, 36, and Geoffrey Keaton, 32, were later named as the volunteers involved in the tragic accident the following day.

Both men were young fathers and had volunteered with the Horsley Park Rural Fire Service brigade for more than a decade. 

Two people also died in South Australian fires before Christmas, including 69-year-old engineer Ron Selth.

His body was found in his Charleston home, which was destroyed by the Cudlee Creek blaze on December 21.

Another person died in a fiery car crash on the same day. 

In early November, just weeks into the horror fire season which has been baring down on the nation for months, three people perished in northern NSW.

George Nole’s body was found in a burnt out car near his home in Glen Innes while 63-year-old Julie Fletcher’s body was pulled from a scorched building in Johns River, north of Taree.

Vivian Chaplain, a 69-year-old woman from Wytaliba, succumbed to her injuries in hospital after attempting in vain to save her home and animals from the blaze.  

The fourth victim was named just days later as 58-year-old Barry Parsons.

His body was discovered in bushland on the southern end of the Kyuna Track at Willawarrin, near Kempsey, on November 13. 

77-year-old Bob Lindsey and 68-year-old Gwen Hyde were found in their burned out property on October 9th.

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