Homes lost but lives saved in Carwoola fire

The Lindley family was lucky to escape with their lives, their home of 19 years was burnt to the ground.

Kevin Lindley said he thought he was prepared to fight the blaze. That was until he saw the flames towering over his machinery shed at twice the height.

"We expected some spot fires, we had the RFS with six tankers at the bottom of our driveway, and then they took off and they went straight into hell," Mr Lindley said.

He said it was when the wind changed that they knew they had to get out.

Vanessa Lindley said she sobbed in the car while her husband watched their family home go up in flames.

"It's not just that you've lost this, or that. We've lost everything. Absolutely everything is gone,” she said.

The couple was preparing to leave for a once-in-a-lifetime holiday, travelling around Australia on a motorcycle, when the fire burned through their belongings and left everything they owned in ruins.

Their shed, which once housed machinery for their small business, was warped and black. Only remnants of their possessions remained.

Their eldest son and his new wife had moved all their possessions to the property the weekend prior, as they prepared to house sit while their parents were away.

Down the road, Julie Wallace said she thought the access to water in her tanks and pool was what saved their family home.

"We had no power, so we couldn't fight with any water. There was nothing we could do," she said.

Firefighters took over as the family evacuated, and were able to save the home. 

"The house is full of smoke and ash, but I've started to clean up," Ms Wallace said on Saturday. 

Gerhard Fischer said he was one of the lucky ones.

The flames licked the side of his home after he and his family had safely evacuated. The deck he'd finished building last week remained untouched, but the grass beside it was blackened.

"We got out with the horses, cats and dogs," Mr Fischer said.

"You think you're prepared but you're not. You think it's not going to happen."

The cubby where his now adult children played as kids was burnt to the ground, but the chickens in the coop further down the yard had been saved. 

"It feels a bit like a war zone at the moment," he said.

"It's a strange feeling. You see it on the news and think it could happen to you but it won't, but when it does it's like a reality check. I feel fortunate, there's a lot of people up the road that are a lot worse off."

Eleven homes have been lost and 12 more damaged in a fire which ripped through 3500 hectares of land at Carwoola.

Of those 11, one belonged to a senior firefighter who was out defending the homes of others. A further 45 outbuildings were destroyed and 40 were damaged. There was "quite a number" of stock lost. At least 56 homes were saved by firefighting efforts, many came within inches of the fire.

The fire, which began on Friday, a day of total fire ban, was contained on Saturday afternoon.

About five millimetres of rain fell on the charred earth on Saturday bringing relief, as Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council administrator Tim Overall and NSW deputy premier and Member for Monaro John Barilaro surveyed the destruction.

Mr Overall said he had spoken to devastated families who had lost their homes, but they managed to escape with their lives.

“The situation was extremely dangerous, a very rapid and strong fire with intense heat,” Mr Overall described.

“I”m aware a number of firefighting units were under grave danger at certain stages, the fact there was no loss of life is a great relief.”

Mr Barilaro said it would take a long time for the community to get back to normality, but the government was prepared to make sure the resources were available for that to happen.

“I know a lot of the people in this region, I’ve been their local member for the past six years,” Mr Barilaro said.

“This is close to home, and when it’s close to home there is emotion attached to it because they are the people you know, the community you know,” he said.

NSW RFS confirmed two firefighters had been injured while fighting the blaze and were taken to the Canberra Hospital.

About 200 firefighters, 50 fire trucks and at least 10 aircraft worked to establish containment lines on Friday, but the blaze had burnt 2700 hectares by 7pm.

NSW Rural Fire Service deputy commissioner Rob Rogers praised the actions of volunteers crews on the ground, saying the situation could have been much worse.

"The fire moved frighteningly quickly and the remarkable thing is how quickly that fire developed," he said.

"Anybody that looks at that landscape can see how quickly that fire moved through that area and how very lucky we are that there wasn't loss of life or more property."

He said the RFS was "very concerned" about the potential of the fire.

"We threw everything we had at it," he said.

"It's as good an outcome as we could have got, but our sympathy goes out to those who have lost their homes.