Mr Lin has run the Bomaderry Motor Inn on the Princes Highway for four years but on Wednesday morning found himself at the rear of the property ready to defend the complex, as the oncoming bushfire raced towards him.

Backing onto the Narang Road bush area, he resorted to using his garden hose to extinguish flames as fire lapped at the rear fence before making its way under the Colorbond structure and into grass at the rear and southern side of the property.

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“It was very scary and happened very quickly,” he said.

“It was very smokey, so thick, very scary.

“The wind was so strong blowing from the west. It just raced up here.”

He said the fact there was a large open area directly behind the property and not dense bush had been a saving grace.

“It was still grass about knee high,” he said.

“It [the fire] ripped through that but it would have been worse if we had bush right up to the back fence.

“I haven’t seen anything like this - we have had a few bushfires in the back bush before but nothing this close.”

The motel was just one property north from where a shed burnt down.

“We were very lucky,” he said.

“Fire crews, RFS and Fire Rescue NSW did an amazing job. We had a truck in the centre of the motel car park. They even ran hoses through the building and out the back to fight the fires.”

Mr Lin said it was lucky the emergency happened after 10am, meaning all their guests had checked out.

“It was only me and my wife and our cleaner here,” he said “we were advised to evacuate and we did.”

They relocated to the adjacent McDonald’s restaurant across the Princes Highway and spent the next six hours watching the firefighters’ ongoing battle around the property and surrounding areas.