Australians flee escalating fire danger

Communities across Australia's fire-ravaged southeast were bracing for a long day of mounting danger on Friday.

Thousands abandoned their homes for evacuation centres and military helicopters dropped emergency supplies to towns at risk of being isolated by blazes fanned by rising winds.

The danger is centred on New South Wales and Victoria, Australia's most populous states, where temperatures and wind speeds are escalating after a few days of relatively benign conditions.

The New South Wales Rural Fire Service has warned that coastal towns south of Sydney including Eden, Batemans Bay and Nowra could again be under threat weeks after losing homes to the fires.

But Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told reporters that an easing of conditions is forecast over the coming week, which will allow weary firefighters to consolidate containment lines around the fires.

In neighbouring Victoria, evacuation orders were issued in alpine areas. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews pleaded with residents to evacuate fire-danger areas when alerts were issued.

The unprecedented fire crisis in southeast Australia has claimed at least 26 lives, destroyed more than 2,000 homes and scorched an area twice the size of the US state of Maryland since September.