Four days on, Tathra residents started to reconnect with friends, and some businesses have opened their doors as the cleanup begins.
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Cafe owner Bronnie Pividori opened her cafe just hours after returning to town, and said she “still can’t believe” the events of Sunday’s bushfire.
“I opened so I could see everybody again, and the faces coming in have been amazing,” she said.
Handmade “thank you” signs are appearing across town, as residents returned to assess the physical impacts of the fire.
Embers left holes in a trampoline behind Luke Hamilton’s house, so the family decided to write a message of thanks to the helicopter pilots above.
“It is to say thanks to our neighbours, friends, and anyone else who saved our place,” he said.
“Now it’s about sifting through rubble with our friends and moving on.”
He said the Rural Fire Service will see an “influx of volunteers” over coming months, as residents look to better prepare themselves for the future.
Mick Preo “stayed and sprayed” on Sunday as embers showered the street around his business, Bendy Kate’s Roadhouse.
“It was like Armageddon, there were so many sounds going on, and gas bottles going off like a demon howling,” he said.
Mr Preo kept the area around the store’s petrol pumps wet, moving “continually back and forth", filling buckets with water and keeping spot fires at bay.
He said the town is “like one big family”, and will pull together through the “mopping and cleaning up” period.
“There’s a lot of people behind us, we’ll be alright,” he said.
“We’ll try and move on, we have to move on.”
The window of his shop looks directly out to the bush, now sitting silent, blackened and smelling of ash.
“I’ve been looking at that hill for years thinking it’s not if [a bushfire comes], it’s when,” he said.
“I live behind my shop, so if I lose this I’ve got nothing.”
Pip and Michael Marshman sat in Ms Pividori’s cafe with friends Bernie Weise and Susie Bell, reconnecting over coffee and breakfast.
“A lot of people who know each other are gradually coming together,” Mr Marshman said.
“It’s hard because you have friends who have lost everything, and you are okay.”