Only a short time earlier she could not see any flames from her house, just some smoke, but remembers a police car racing down her driveway and an officer yelling at her to "get out now".

Without time to evacuate properly she snatched up a few items as she ran out of the house.

She considers herself lucky she left as fast as she did, because by the time she was driving out her driveway the trees that surrounded it were on fire.

This was not during the recent summer's disastrous bushfires that at last count had destroyed 448 Bega Valley houses, this was the Yankees Gap fire in August 2018 that eventually covered 20,000ha and destroyed three homes, including Ms Reynolds'.

READ JAN'S STORY: One year on from Yankees Gap: 'I was just happy to get out alive

Australian Community Media caught up with her on Thursday to gauge her thoughts on the fires that have hit the Far South Coast since then, and she said while she planned to rebuild, these fires had made her feel "dubious" about it all.

"Seeing the fires return in the way that they did and seeing the inaction of our government to actually look at them seriously and accept we really need to be working to try and lessen the temperature of our planet, I just think these fires will continue," the 74-year-old said.

"There's still so much dead stuff that will burn, it's like an enormous fire waiting to happen.

"If I saw a real commitment and investment to researching renewables and moving away from fossil fuels, I'd feel more encouraged.

"But without seeing that, I think it's going to get worse."

Words of advice

During the recent bushfires Ms Reynolds stayed in Bega and while she did not realise it about herself at the time, "there was quiet a level of stress there".

READ MORE: Bushfire damage count: two-thirds of Far South Coast burnt, eight lives lost

She really felt for the people who had lost their homes in the fires and, speaking from her own experience of recovery, believed once they had cleaned up their properties they would need guidance about rebuilding to the new regulations to make their homes bushfire-resistant.

"It's an awful lot to think about when you lose everything," she said.

"It was different for me, I was retired.

"But people who are still at work or still have children going to school, it's a really enormous amount to get your head around."

For example, governments could develop a kit to teach people how to rebuild a bushfire-resistant home simply, cost-effectively and to specifications.

READ ALSO: Services Australia information for those in need

She encouraged the incorporation of stand-alone solar power, like she had, so residents would not lose power in any future fire emergency.

She also said it was important to keep useful documents packed up and ready to go in an evacuation, such as passports, birth certificates, insurance papers and property deeds.

Ms Reynolds understood the recent season's bushfires were on a unprecedented magnitude, but said the lack of government support for those who lost their homes in the Yankees Gap fire had made her feel invisible.

"It looks and sounds like [the recent fire survivors] are getting support and at least they were promised free clean up," she said.

"Being so public elicited that type of response, while our fire wasn't big enough to attract that kind of attention; even council didn't care about it.

"There was no support for the survivors of Yankees Gap.

"We couldn't access the funds for the Tathra fire, so there was no help."

READ ALSO: Tathra bushfire mayoral fund reaches $1million

Ms Reynolds has had to fund her own clean up, with an earth mover clearing the property at the moment, and while she plans on rebuilding is under-insured so said her future home will be very small.

But she was thankful to the community members who stepped up to help out, such as a neighbour who would often turn up at the property to help her "shovel" her life into bags to take to the tip, or the Numbugga Food Swamp members who also helped with the clean up.

"It was that evident support, that display of caring, it meant a huge amount," she said.

"It still makes me feel teary, even thinking about it now."

The Werri Berri/Badja Forest Road fire did not reach Ms Reynolds' property this summer, although she said a nearby resident whose property was burnt in the 2018 blaze was burnt again this time around.

A piece of advice she has for gardeners is do not be too hasty to remove fire-damaged fruit frees.

While the fire "completely burnt" her orchard, several trees such as her peach, nectarine, plum, guava and lemon have grown back - even without her watering them.

READ ALSO: Cobargo wildlife carers rediscover purpose amid charred sanctuary

But in the burnt forest on her property she is now constantly digging up weeds, something she rarely had to do before, as the ground is now open and bare and the lack of live trees allows light to get through.

Ms Reynolds returns to her property to feed native animals and said "life is coming back", as she sees wallabies, lyre birds and evidence of wombats and echidnas.

But there used to be "so many animals", and has not seen any goannas and only one snake while they used to be common.