The after-effects of the Tingha fire are already hitting home.
Brothers Reece and Josh Brand were thankful their family home on New Valley Road was left unscathed but now the brothers are facing up to a whole range of problems.
Not the least is the fact their property has less then five per cent feed left for its cattle.
The pair reached their parents' farm on Wednesday in the nick of time.
One bloke was here fighting the fire at our property while the firefront was headed straight for his own house
- Reece Brand
After jumping on the bike to assess the threat, Reece found fire at the front of the property. Before long winds had pushed flames towards the back of their property as well.
"I was on the bike basically doing recons to see where it was and how it was travelling. Thankfully, winds changed in our favour pushing the fire behind our property away but it was headed for the neighbour's place," he said.
Reece rode home to update his parents and by the time he got back to the blaze it had travelled around 300 metres through their cattle yards.
With the neighbour's cattle in a paddock under threat of fire, he tried open the boundary fence to allow stock in but it was too late, the whole fence was engulfed.
"Some cattle managed to jump the fence but I'd say there would have been a few who didn't make it out of the fire."
Fire crews began backburning around the house while the fire tore through the yard destroying everything in its path, even melting an old Commodore ute.
While the family was lucky not to lose any buildings, they now have cattle in need of water, feed and uncharred ground.
"Not only that, all of our dams are contaminated so we have to skim the tops before our cattle can drink from it. We're providing them our tank water at the moment.
"And to make things worse, Inverell council has restricted use of the standpipe," he said.
Reece applauded the work of firefighters who worked tirelessly to protect and save what they could.
"I was speaking to the firies here, one of them is a neighbour who lives up the road. They saved eight homes at Old Mill plus ours. One bloke was here fighting the fire at our property while the firefront was headed straight for his own house. They did such a great job," he said.
While organising feed and water for cattle, Reece prayed for rain to assist everyone affected by the fire.
Because of the help they received in a time of such desperate need, the brothers intend to start volunteering.
"We want to give back and if something like this happens again we'll be the ones giving help instead of receiving it."