TORONTO -- A Canadian who was visiting her brother in an evacuated Australian beach town says they aren’t sure if the town will still be there when they return.

Marie-Eve LeClerc and five of her family members were among those forced to leave Bermagui in New South Wales earlier this week. In an interview with CTV News Channel on Thursday, LeClerc described the ordeal, which began on Dec. 30, when the smoke was already thick in the town. She went to buy surgical masks for protection that day, she recalled, but they didn’t expect the situation to take a turn for the worse the next morning.

“The neighbour woke us up knocking on the door saying ‘The fire is coming, you have to get out of the house,’” she said. “We took the kids, mom, my brother and sister-in-law, we packed the car (to) get by the beach.”

The roads around the town were all closed, so many people in Bermagui were forced to remain on the beach. LeClerc and her family stayed overnight. The next day, police gave an evacuation order, telling residents that the conditions would worsen by Saturday.

“It looked like hell was coming to burn the town,” she said.

The Australian wildfires have so far burned about 5 million hectares, killed at least 17 people and destroyed more than 1,400 homes.

LeClerc and family left Bermagui and began the drive up to Canberra. The capital city is just 300 kilometres from there, which normally would be a three-hour trip. It took them eight hours to get there.

“The road was bumper to bumper,” she said. “And we were running out of gas.” They stopped at a station along the way and faced long lineups to fuel up. To make more room in their vehicle, LeClerc decided to hitchhike part of the way and joined another pair in their car.

“The conditions on the road were horrific,” she said. “We could see smoke and some places burned down already… You couldn’t see more than 200 metres in front of you. It was just smoke, and the grass on the ground in some places was already burned.”

Once in Canberra, the group of six were taken in by a “very nice family.” But what lies ahead is uncertain. Extreme weather, including strong winds, are expected in the coming days.

“There’s fire all over the place. We have no idea if we will be able to go back to the house and when,” she said.

“There was no electricity when we left. No power, no communication. No petrol. No WiFi, no cell phone(s), no nothing… Everyone is in a state of emergency. We have no idea if the village will be there.”