A woman who saved a burning koala from a bushfire in New South Wales says a few seconds delay would have meant she couldn't have caught him.
More than a million people around the world have watched a video of Australian woman Toni Doherty and her husband Peter rescuing the animal near Port Macquarie.
In an interview with RNZ's First Up, Mrs Doherty said she started running when she spotted the disorientated koala heading for a tree. They had been in their car trying to get through an area on fire when it all unfolded.
"We saw a koala come out of the smoke and he was on the low side of the road. And he was walking, hurrying to get across the road. And I said to my husband 'oh no, he's going into the flames'. And then that's what he did.
A dehydrated and injured Koala receives treatment at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie on 2 November after its rescue from a bushfire. Photo: Saeed Khan / AFP
"I jumped out of the car, ran down the road and took my shirt off as I ran because I could just see him reaching the bottom of the tree and he was on fire.
"And I just took my shirt off and T shirt and then put it over his back so I could get a hold of him and try to smother the flames.
"Luckily when I got to him he was a metre off the ground. If he gone up a tiny bit further I wouldn't been able to reach him and (I) managed to miss one arm off the tree.
"Then it turned around and bit me on the finger, they have really sharp teeth ... I managed to get him off the tree, and ... just run away from the flames."
The koala sounded like it was crying because the skin on its paws had lifted off, she said.
She wrapped the koala in a thick quilt and took it to a koala sanctuary about half an hour away.
"It was good to be able to get him to care as quickly as possible and they're so caring there ... he's very injured. He's 14 years old and he'll need to be kept in care for the rest of his life due to the severity of his injury and his age."
The koala is now called Lewis, she said.
