Guy McPhee and his wife Caroline own and operate Egans Farm, a beef and egg farm on on the banks of the Buckenbowra River in Runnyford.

They also operate a campground through HipCamp on their property, and it was here a big family group was staying over the New Year period at the end of 2019.

"It all started on the 30^th for them," Mr McPhee said. "They were HipCamp people and there was a big family group.

"They kept asking us to let them know if things were getting bad so they could get out in time.

"They were out here for a few days, and we both went down and had a few drinks with them after dinner one night, they were good people.

"Eventually the smoke down here got so thick that you could barely breathe, but they kept telling us they were OK.

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"On the 30^th they drove by while I was re-stumping the barn, and I told them I didn't really know where the fire was anymore and that it was probably time to go.

"That was at about 12pm, they were out of here by 2.30pm, and this was all on fire 12 hours after that.

"They got out just in time."

Mrs McPhee said the fire came through earlier than they were expecting.

"It wasn't meant to come through that night," she said.

"You could see it in the hills, but we'd lost track of it for a while so we didn't know exactly how far away it was.

"We took turns overnight keeping an eye out, and their our phones started going off in the early morning."

The McPhee's went 39 days without power in the aftermath of the fires, which swept through the property twice in less than 24 hours.

"What didn't burn in the northwesterly burnt in the southerly that afternoon," Mr McPhee said.

"We had to fight the fire twice in one afternoon."