"He called to tell me the lights kept dimming [in our Bermagui store] from power surges."

Soon, Bermagui lost power completely.

At midday, smoke began rising to the west of the coastal town, undoubtedly sparking fear and anxiety in people who had experienced the terror of the Black Summer bushfires in 2019 and 2020.

After the power went out, Tania's family realised they could receive calls out of town but couldn't make calls.

"I got a hold of my Dad and he said there was a lot smoke to the west of us and asked me to check the Fires Near Me App because he couldn't check his [due to reception being down].

"As I was about to hang up I heard the sirens."

The Mccue family, including Tania's parents, moved to Bermagui about ten years ago. The Mccues found a landholder in Coolagolite to agist their two horses.

When Tania arrived back in Bermagui from Narooma at about 2.30pm, an RFS firefighter told her the horses could be in the line of fire if the wind swings northward.

"She said it was so bad out there that they had to focus on where it was heading," Tania said.

READ MORE:

Tania's husband, Josh, raced out to the property to transport the animals to safety in Bermagui. As he was loading the horses onto the float, he could see flames on a nearby ridge.

The experience was a near repeat of the fires that ravaged the Bega Valley in 2019.

"I didn't have access to a float back then," Tania said, "We got the alert...we drove out to the horses and got stopped by police, I was only going to open them up to the dam, but when I got there I could see and hear the fire".

"I ran nine kilometres back to town with them."

Thankfully, the Coolagilite fire allowed the Mccues enough time to bring the horses to the coast.

As the fire continued eastwards, Josh and Tania went to Dickinson Point to survey the smoke.

They saw the blue sky being strangled by a thick cloud of black smoke, and fresh, paler smoke rising closer to Bermagui. They watched the menacing plumes for an hour before heading back home.

"[RFS] started going door knocking, they told us to get ready for what could happen."

She said although the Coolagolite fire echoed the Black Summer fires, the Bermagui community remained relatively calm.

"A few people decided to up and go, and [town] wasn't too bad, you could still go in and buy what you needed."

She said the Black Summer fires saw Bermagui choked with tourists, and supermarket shelves left bare as anxiety ran high.

Tania said her son, then just 18 years old was on the frontline on the Far South Coast during the unforgettable 2019 fires. When he moved to Nowra to join the navy, he decided to step away from the RFS.

"He hasn't been back in the truck since the Black Summer, but he decided to [get involved] a few weeks back.

"He said it was time and he would be needed."

When Coolagolite began burning, he was quickly dispatched to the Far South Coast and Tania decided to lend a hand to the RFS crews.

"I spoke to one of the local RFS crews to see if I could make coffee for anybody."

She was told 100 firefighters would be working overnight to contain and monitor the fire, so she got down to business and jumped behind the espresso machine.

"I jumped in with Erin [from Horseshoe Cafe] to make coffees and I called my dad to ask if he could be the coffee delivery man.

"Svenja and Oliver from Eurolicious were fantastic - I went into their cafe and they said 'yes' straight away to helping out."

She said owners of Mr Hope, Eurolicious and the Horseshoe Cafe rallied into the night to make sure the RFS were watered and fed.

As the westerly winds dropped off and a surprise weather system brought more than 10 millimetres to the fireground on October 4, Tania said she kept working with other Bermagui businesses to offer support where it was needed.

She said it was important that the community helps those who have lost homes, like first-generation dairy farmers Richelle and Byron Jackson, who lost their Coolagolite property in the Black Summer fires and again on October 3.

In two days, more than $70,000 has been raised to help the family.

"You just jump in and start helping," Tania said.