At noon of Thursday, Xinhua reporter went to a pharmacy in Canberra Center, the shopping center in the city, where an unnamed sales person said there were only five facial masks left. Now and then customers walked in, asking to buy masks.

Amity Raymond had lunch with her family at the Canberra Center, with masks they bought on Thursday placed aside.

She told Xinhua in Canberra, which was dubbed the "bush capital," people rarely need masks. "But now all the smoke is coming from fires outside Canberra," she said. "And we need them for the kids mainly."

The scene was reminiscent of 2003, when fires entered the suburbs of Canberra, killing four people, injuring 430 and destroying more than 500 homes, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Raymond admitted that the smoke affected their lives seriously, especially her six-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son. "My son has got a bit of a cough from it," she said.

Her son's grandmother is 78 years old. "It is affecting her as well," she said. "So she has to stay indoors."

At home they have a reverse-cycle air conditioner in the bedroom which she believes could clean the air. "We have had to buy a special tape and door fittings...to seal the doors to stop the smoke from coming inside," she added. "Unfortunately, the house is so old that smoke keeps coming in through the doors."

In spite of the inconvenience, she thought their family lucky.

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