Australians in the southeastern coastal town of Mallacoota are spending New Year’s Eve in the water—the only safe place from bushfires raging in the area that have turned the midday sky blood orange and black.

“I’ll say it again, unprecedented national crisis,” tweeted University of Sydney professor Joanne Arciuli, noting that Mallacoota, in the southeastern state of Victoria, is only one of the areas of the country facing devastating fires.

Pictures and video coming out of Mallacoota paint a stark picture of the consequences of the fires. Images of families in boats in the bay, miles from the flames, are backdropped by hazy smoke in the skies.