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One moment it was smoke in the distance, the next a 30-metre wall of flames had arrived on their collective doorstep.
The people of Brownes Road in Salt Ash reckon they are a sturdy lot – part of the deal in living the rural life is the bushfire threat.
But Sunday’s blaze which had wiped out more than 21 structures, including two larger homes and two granny flats, was something else.
‘‘My family has been here since 1886 and has been through many fires and they really don’t get any worse than this,’’ Glenn Browne said.
He later added: ‘‘The one back in ’06 there might have been more houses destroyed but yesterday, just the conditions it was pretty horrendous.
‘‘I chose to stay.
‘‘The family all left.
‘‘We have a work property, I am an oyster farmer, and mum and dad just live next door so because the northern side had been burnt I worked out what my evacuation plan could have been and parked my vehicle where it had already been burnt.’’
Reg Hyde, 88, has been living on his Brownes Road property for more than 35 years and said he had never seen the intensity of what he saw on Sunday afternoon.
He lost three sheds, including one with a granny flat, which he had used to build boats for decades.
‘‘It just came so quickly, you wouldn’t have been able to run as fast as it came,’’ Mr Hyde said.
‘‘I honestly have never seen anything like it.’’
Mr Hyde’s house was spared, although two neighbours were not so lucky.
One homestead burnt to the ground yesterday morning, more than 15 hours after the firestorm had passed.
Across the road, the Booth family smelt the smoke and had 12 minutes to get out.
Jarrod Booth decided to stay as his wife, Katrina and children Nathan, 10, and Joanna, 8, jumped in the car and escaped.
‘‘You smelt it and then it was on top of us,’’ Mr Booth said.
‘‘The flames would have been 10 to 15 metres above the tree tops.
I sheltered behind a neighbour’s place and the smoke was unbelievable – you couldn’t see the hands in front of your face.’’
Further along Brownes Road, a 51-year-old man who had been enjoying the Bathurst 1000 was called home after his stand-alone garage was destroyed, taking with it several cars.
Shane Vichie, who had also sent his wife and children away with the horses and dogs, lost a work shed with more than $100,000 worth of air conditioners, motorbikes and lawnmowers inside.
‘‘That one that hit a few years ago, it was bad but we were not worried,’’ he said.
‘‘This one totally different story.
‘‘It was seriously so fast, fuelled by a 70km/h wind and it just beelined straight at us.
‘‘And it just jumped over everything.
‘‘This one was just different – it was insane.’’
He also told of how he decided he might not make it as he watched the fire approach.
‘‘There was a lot of people along the road who stayed but having not experienced a fire like that, and with that wind, I didn’t know,’’ he said.
‘‘I just thought I am going to save myself. As it turns out I probably could have come out into the backyard and done something and probably been OK.
‘‘But it wasn’t worth the risk to me and I just didn’t know what it was going to do.’’