With no sleep for days, Angus Johnston, his father and neighbours fought to save their properties from raging flames and falling embers.
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Over five days he saved his Morans Crossing home from the flames of the Werri Berri bushfire an astounding six times before it was eventually engulfed on January 4. The fire destroyed everything in its path, helped by hot conditions and a bone dry landscape suffering from years of drought.
His wife and three young children evacuated on December 30, not long before embers began to drop around the family home, carried almost 20kms from the firefront.
"I really didn't think it would get to my place that quick. It was a fire cyclone, a firestorm," he said.
While firefighters, neighbours and his dad were on hand to help save a string of properties, when the trucks had to leave to defend Bega, the fire quickly took hold.
The four metre high flames eventually forced their way between the father and son, after a quick change of wind direction caught them by surprise while restocking water. The only thing giving them a chance of fending off the flames.
"It was too hot and we had to get out before we were trapped," he said while holding back tears.
"I was a mess."
As the family try to rebuild their lives they have received some help in the form of furniture, previously used to decorate homes for sale in Sydney.
The furniture, for a new rental property just down the road from what is now left of their home, has been donated by Allure Property Styling after they were contacted by Bega resident Jessica Dwyer from Right at Home Staging.
"I just wanted to help somehow, and so many people have lost their homes," Ms Dwyer said.
"I didn't want people to worry about having to furnish their new homes.
"I was stuck at home, trapped inside due to the smoke when I came up with the idea, but I knew I just needed to help someone.
"So, I'm glad I can give this to a lovely family."
While Mr Johnston was separated from his family for nine days, he said his work milking cows on a nearby dairy is what kept him going through the natural disaster. Every day he started milking at 3am, staying in his regular routine. A routine he says kept him positive.
"It took my mind of it all," he said.
His wife Stephanie said the time spent separated from her husband, while she had evacuated to Bega and then further afield to Canberra, was difficult to stomach.
"I felt like I should be going back to help him," she said.
The family has lived through two bushfires in just two years, and Mr Johnston said the recent fire quickly burned through what hadn't burned in 2018.
"I remember as soon as we heard the fire was on the mountain Stephanie and the kids left," he said.
"Then I remember I rang dad and told him the fire was right there. He came over and got the double gun and we started fighting it."
After days of backbreaking, adrenaline-fueled firefighting the pair knew it was time to leave the house behind and save their own lives.
"As soon as I saw the house on fire I got out of there," Mr Johnston said.
"When the deck caught fire I told dad to give up."
When he returned the next day after his morning shift at the dairy, the family home was gone. Miraculously some plastic children's toys and his "world's finest dad" mug were untouched by the flames.
"We just had to put out what was smoking," he said.