Daphne and Les, and Billy Ringlands (the son of a friend of Daphne) were with me at Coopers Gully at the time of the bushfire.

You could almost feel the tragedy coming.

Everything in the valley seemed to be silent, and waiting.

Even at 5am it was terribly hot and oppressive.

There were smaller fires around already.

The forestry fire-trails around Indian head had become untrafficable with uncontrolled outbreaks.

I did the milking as usual at five and finished around seven-thirty and went in for breakfast.

I'd left a Bot Bomb (for control of Bot Flies on horses) on top of the refrigerator in the kitchen.

This was for a pony I was preparing for Neil Lavis to compete in the forthcoming show season.

While we were eating breakfast the heat of the day combined with the heat of the refrigerator to explode the Bot Bomb, which shot of terrible mix of H2S Hydrogen Sulphide (rotten egg gas) through the house. 

Oh Lord, it was terrible. What a stink! Daphne was absolutely furious, and the stink hung around the house for weeks afterwards, too.

After breakfast Les and I worked on a practice jump we were building, the last of a set of properly constructed jumping hurdles.

I happened to look towards Kirkland's Knob.

I was horrified to see a big fire bearing north-west – the wind was roaring – it just exploded into that hot north westerly wind.

The fire had been smouldering in the Upper Brogo for about six weeks but with no fire trails there was nothing anyone could do.

Then a fire at the top of Bemboka Peak – between Nimmitabel and Bemboka – showered the district with sparks and that fire spread to Bega within 20 minutes, probably faster.

But while we watched one fire, there were dozens of other fires already burning.

I jumped on the pony while Les headed back to the houses.

I first checked that the Hetheringtons were at home, then I rode further down Cooper Gully Road to move Bill Butler's cattle. The fire was virtually there already.

To be continued next week.