Speaking to members of the Milton Fire Service Brigade you learn they consider it to be a privilege to help people in times of emergency - like the Mount Kingiman Fire.

The insight the likes of Glenn Patterson, Annette Stevens, Ian Stevens and captain John Olle gives you about Kingiman Fire is amazing.

You learn how their training, commitment and teamwork played roles in protecting lives and property.

Glenn Patterson remembers smoke and bright light coming from the Mount Kingiman area early in the piece.

His memories of the event, as we mark the emergency's first anniversary, are still clear.

He remembers how the situation heightened early Wednesday morning (August 15).

Glenn recalled the wind blowing around the 90km/h at 6am in the morning. The RFS volunteers knew straight away the fight had to be ramped up.

Glenn said they could hardly see metres in front of them because the smoke was so thick in the Bonnie View area.

They got tasked to go down to Evans Lane for property protection at 8.30am.

"We had people coming out to us still in their pyjamas saying 'what do we do and where will go?' You don't expect a bushfire at 8.30am in the morning," Glenn said.

Glenn said they never saw the fire front because it moved so quickly.

"Your first thing is property protection and when you get a fire like this our response is 'let us find a property and let's protect it'," Glenn said.

"You are also going - 'how do I get out of here in case I need to get out?"

"I think we also got plenty of resources down here and in quick time."

Glenn has eight years experience with the Rural Fire Service and the Kingiman fire is the biggest local bushfire he has fought.

He remembers meeting residents who had never seen bushfires in the Mount Kingiman area before and saw panic in eyes.

Glenn recalls being at one property where embers were falling and there was a small fire around a resident's front door

"They were running in and out of the home. The door was open, embers were going in the house - it was just total panic and they just did not know what to do," he said.

Seeing the RFS always calms the residents down.

"The first day you are running on adrenaline and it still kicks in the next day," Glenn said

Simple gestures from the community gives the volunteers a boost.

"We had a lot of people coming up here (at the station) giving us pies and all these donations of food," he said.

"It just fantastic when someone in the street comes up and says 'thank you for what you did'.

"You sit back at the end and really appreciate those gestures."

Glenn also remembers the day helicopter pilot Allan Tull lost his life. He and all members of the brigade said it was such a sad loss.

For Annette Stevens training to fight a fire and then facing a real beast of a bushfire are two different things.

She has been a volunteer for 18-months and the Kingiman Fire was a great test for her. Annette passed the test with flying colours.

She and her fellow volunteers were surprised how fast the fire moved and she remembers it was intense.

"It was very hot and smokey - you could not see any appliance in front of you even with its flashing lights going," she said

Annette said the Milton RFS volunteers quickly got into action and fell back on their training.

"We train very hard and we are a very good team," she said.

She added it was important that not only did the Milton firefighters work as a team but also all the other brigades as well.

She learnt a lot from being on such a fire-ground.

Annette said fighting the blaze was tiring and they did seven to eight days straight, while their truck was out 24 hours with volunteers working in split shifts.

"You don't get much thinking time," she said.

Even when the blaze was declared out the Milton team was still on the job and Annette said they still had to carry out patrols to make sure it did not fire up again.

She said they all tried to get their lives back to routine after what was such a busy few weeks.

"I also felt very satisfied that my efforts have actually helped the community. So that satisfaction is part of the rewards and why you keep coming back," she said.

She added having members of the community coming up and thanking and supporting them was other parts of the rewards.

The days after the initial call to arms is still clear in Ian Stevens' mind.

On Friday, a few days after the emergency ramped up, he remembers the fire was heading quickly towards Burrill Lake fanned by a strong north/northwesterly wind.

"This was possibly the hairiest day for us," he said.

They had to do a backburn along the northern fire trail and the conditions were tough.

"It was hot to the extent that we were having to spray the cabin of the vehicles and the plastic on the outside of the vehicles was starting to melt - it was that hot," he said.

They would empty 3000 litres of water going around the circuit, fill up and go back to do it again. They did this four or five times and finished 7pm that evening - another big day.

The experienced Tanzi Lea was the crew-leader of the backburn operation. All brigade members say they are lucky to have someone like Tanzi Lea in their brigade.

Ian said he was able to fall back on his training and follow the hierarchy of things they are trained to do.

"The first thing we need to protect is ourselves - individually and the rest of our crew," he said.

"Our second priority is protecting lives - other people's lives apart from ourselves, the third priority is protecting property and our fourth priority is helping to restore normality - helping the community get back on its feet."

Ian said he never felt at risk because he and others followed the right steps.

"With this brigade, and I think it's common in other brigades, is we instinctively look after each other and we work as a team," he said.

Ian, like his wife Annette, has been a volunteer for 18-months.

"This was a baptism of fire - excuse the pun," he said.

Ian also remembers the devastation caused by the fire.

"One area looked like a lush rain-forest before the fire and looked like a blackened-out horror afterwards. It's only just recovering," he said.

Captain John Olle was in Western Australia when things erupted.

"My temptation was to get on an aeroplane and come back," he said.

However, he worked out it would take him two days to get back and he knew his team would do the job.

"The other thing was I had complete confidence in my crews. I am very proud of them," he said.

When he heard the crew was splitting the shifts he knew the community was in safe hands.

The captain, upon his return, helped with the mop-up operation.