Few people know more about the devastating capabilities of bush fires than Carwoola resident and volunteer fire fighter Peter Bavington, but even he admitted to assuming his home would be OK during the recent blaze that tore through the area.
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He has bravely fought countless fires over nearly two decades, and such a terrible thing had always happened to other people.
But less than two weeks ago that terrible thing happened to him and his family, whose home was completely destroyed during the Carwoola fire.
As the captain of the Captain’s Flat fire brigade, he received an alert to fight the blaze at about midday on February 17.
An all too familiar notification, particularly this summer, and as he left his public service job based at the Canberra Airport he could see a “column of white smoke” in the direction of his home.
"White smoke means that the fire has got lots of oxygen but it's generally burning in a grass, so it didn't worry me at all,” Mr Bavington said.
After he arrived at the site he got to door knocking, alerting his neighbours to be ready.
"At that stage the fire was moving relatively slowly and I thought we wouldn't have much trouble stopping it either before it got to Widgiewa Road or at Widgiewa Road,” he said.
But as is the devastating and unpredictable nature of bush fires, it then took a nasty turn.
The wind picked up, the fire engulfed a large area of tea trees, and the head of the fire hit a steep patch of uphill terrain, which allowed it to move much faster.
It jumped Widgiewa Road the first time but missed Mr Bavington’s home, but the next line to jump that road “much more ferociously” came right for the family house.
"At the stage when it crossed into our place, it was starting to crown - so it was in the tree tops - where as before it was just in the under story,” Mr Bavington said.
"And the flames had a black tinge which I'm pretty sure was from the tea tree and the amount of fuel that was there, it was almost like the flames from an oil fire."
Mr Bavington could do nothing but watch on from a safe distance as this cloud of black smoke circled above his home, and even a Hercules aircraft dropping to 14,000 litres of water did nothing to halt its fury.
“It was incredibly ferocious … our house was inside the tree-line, we knew the risks but we never quite thought it would happen to us - it's always something that happens to somebody else,” Mr Bavington said.
He said he had a sinking feeling at the pit of his stomach and when he drove in to his property to see if there was anything he could do he was confronted with every homeowner’s worst nightmare.
"I drove in and I thought the sheds had gone and the house had survived but then I realised, no, the house was alight and nothing was going to save it,” he said.
Mr Bavington was then too distraught to continue fighting the blaze and instead returned to Queanbeyan to have the heartbreaking conversation with his kids Emma, 17, and Nick, 12.
Their home was one of 11 to be ruined by the blaze, and all of their possessions were destroyed.
It has been just two weeks but now the Bavingtons are looking forward.
The fire brigade captain said his practical mindset combined with the community’s “tremendous” help and generosity was helping him to focus on the future.
"What's gone are things, and those things have memories but we've still got the memories,” Mr Bavington said.
"It would have been nice to save some things but it's more important that we saved people and we saved memories.”
Mr Bavington admits he wasn’t racing out to sign building contracts, but he was adamant he will rebuild and has decided to focus on the opportunity that the future has in store.
He even caught his son on Saturday googling cool bedroom ideas.
