THE Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met a group of girl guides as they spoke to members of a community devastated by the worst Australian bushfires in their state for a decade.

William and Kate, who are on their first trip abroad with baby son, Prince George of Cambridge, heard yesterday how one woman thought she was going to be roasted alive when flames swept through the small town of Winmalee near Sydney, New South Wales. The inferno raged through the Blue Mountains area and destroyed more than 100 homes in the settlement.