Anxious residents described the terrifying scene they witnessed when looking to the sky, waiting for the Currowan fire front to hit their homes.
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Hot, humid and windy conditions caused the Currowan fire to jump the Shoalhaven River on Saturday.
Weather conditions converged and formed a dry thunderstorm, which caused erratic winds and dangerous fire activity.
The fire created a six-kilometre high column of smoke above Bugong.
Residents could only look to the sky, watch and wait to see whether the fire would spare their homes.
The fire was moving in a south-easterly direction from Burrier and Buangla and through Illaroo.
Ros Hodgkins had busily been preparing her old homestead in Tapitallee for weeks.
She was out wetting the garden on Saturday morning when she described seeing the "horrific" column of smoke to the west.
"We hope all the time that somehow the fire will be stopped with rain but it seems that it is so dry that the ground will keep burning," Ms Hodgkins said.
"It creates quite a bit of anxiety but you have to stay hopeful.
"You keep on doing what you need to do to protect your house but then go when you need to."
To prepare, Ms Hodgkins got rid of mulch, cleaned up leaves, kept the garden and home moist by using water from the dam, and got generators and water pumps for the dam.
"I thought, 'I can't do anymore'. It is up to the wind and weather and hopefully rain will coming soon," she said.
"We just keep watering the garden so it remains moist. We have put wet towels along the timber doors and are keeping the verandah and roof damp too.
"My children, son-in-laws and grandchildren came back to help too. I appreciate all the extra hands."
Ms Hodgkins it was important for her to stay and protect her more than 100-year-old property and 60 acres for as long as possible to try and preserve her family's history.
"We wouldn't have the chance to rebuild a place like this," she said.
"I am trying to protect what can't be replaced.
"We will do all the work we can and when it is too dangerous, we'll get out and save our lives.
"I wouldn't run too soon but I definitely would go before the bush behind us was on fire.
"We would head to my son's place which is not too far away but isn't in the fire's path."
Graham Lowbridge and his son Angus, both Camberwarra RFS volunteers, were helping protect his father-in-law's property, known as Willandra, for the past five days. The land is used for a cross country event every year.
"The tank water had almost run out so we needed to get water carted in for the dam, which is also almost dry," Mr Lowbridge said.
"We have also got generators and water pumps set up. A water sprinkler system is on the roof and will be turned on if embers start coming. Then we will bug out pretty quickly.
"We want to stay and protect the property for as long as we can but being in the RFS, we know of the danger of doing that without the proper firefighting resources.
"Losing life isn't worth it to save your property."
Mr Lowbridge and his son were planning on evacuating to their Camberwarra house, where the rest of the extended family were staying, before the southerly hit in the night.
Bill McPaul and his neighbours were watching the fire activity closely from their Browns Mountain Road properties on Saturday afternoon.
"We wet the buildings and immediate vicinity down," he said.
"We will come back out in half an hour to do it again.
"If the worst happens, we will get in our makeshift bunker under the house.
"But if we get told to leave, we will leave."
Mr McPaul said he was feeling anxious and on edge.
"It is different when you look at the smoke," he said.
"You can make all the plans you like but when you see it bearing down ,it is different.
"At least we're have a lot of open field between the ridge and us so we can stop any ember attacks.
"We will try to stop the embers then we will seek cover.
"The way I see it is, there are heaps and heaps of volunteers out there doing an enormous amount of work but we should do the work we can, as long as we know when to call it quits.
"Hopefully that will save volunteers coming up here."
Mr McPaul said he had been watching the fire activity closely to see if it jumped the Shoalhaven River and his worst fears became a reality.
Browns Mountain Road resident Michael Waples has been putting up sprinklers around his property for the past two months.
"We have been preparing since the first fires started in November," he said.
"We are just waiting and seeing. We are worried about ember attacks not the fire front."
It was an anxious wait until about 8pm for residents of Tapitallee and Browns Mountain, however, the fire spared the area but unfortunately ran towards Kangaroo Valley.
A spot fire quickly took hold near Wingello and Bundanoon, where homes were lost.