Carload of koalas rescued from Kangaroo Island amid bushfire

KANGAROO ISLAND, South Australia -- An Australian man set up an impromptu rescue operation amid the bushfires on Kangaroo Island.

Micah Lovegrove was assessing the area where his uncle's house once stood when he and his family found a koala huddled beside a tree nearby the destroyed property.

Lovegrove threw a towel over the animal and transferred it into a car before searching for any other koalas that were in surrounding blue gum plantations.

"We'd run up and down aisles of the plantations, picking up koalas and checking to see if they looked okay to leave behind," Lovegrove told Storyful.

"If they were responsive, could climb and had a good coat, we left them," he added.

Video uploaded to YouTube shows several rescued koalas scattered throughout the car.

The koalas were brought to his neighbors who, according to Lovegrove, have a permit to care for native wildlife.

Unfortunately, one of the koalas in the car died on the journey.

According to local media, fires have burned through more than 160,000 hectares of land on Kangaroo Island and it continues to burn.