It was the sound - not the sight - of the fireball blasting through Tathra that sticks in Doug Spindler's mind.
"All I could hear while we drove off was glass breaking and gas bottles exploding," he said, shaking his head.
"It sounded like a freight train when it hit us."
The NSW south coast local had just doused a spot fire in his backyard on Sunday when the main firefront - which destroyed almost 100 houses, caravans and cabins - turned toward the family home.
Mr Spindler loaded his wife and three boys, who all have cerebral palsy, into the car along with the family cat Patches. They took nothing else and fled the home Doug had lived in for almost 30 years.
It was a story repeated among the hundreds of locals who were forced to leave when the fire struck with little warning.
When furniture maker Steve Jory left for work it was a small blaze in the distance. By the time he got home, it was a raging firestorm ready to claim his house.
"The kids had gone to pick up whatever sort of mementos they could ... but by the time I got home I just had to tell the kids to leave and leave myself," he said.
"We didn't have much time at all."
Warning messages were sent to mobile phones and delivered to landlines, but some say they didn't receive any alerts.
Tathra resident Janet Lewis said she first heard of the emergency when police drove past yelling "evacuate!" out of a megaphone.
Mobile towers in the area were affected and power had been lost, making communication "a challenge", NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
"But I'm absolutely confident we did everything we could as quickly as possible to get the message out," she said in Bega on Monday.
Initially, five fires started in the area amid hot temperatures and low humidity.
Wind gusts of up to 90 km/h pushed the main fire straight towards the ocean and directly into the township. Spot fires made it impossible to contain.
Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said if the blaze was a few hundreds metres north or south, it would have likely gone straight past Tathra.
"But sadly the direction the winds blew this fire put it right into the centre of the township," he said in Bega.
Fire crews on Monday afternoon confirmed 69 houses and 30 caravans or cabins were destroyed. A further 39 houses were damaged, with almost 400 saved.
Two firefighters suffered heat exhaustion while a woman in her 40s suffered minor burn injuries.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was shocked at the destruction.
"Thank heaven there have been no lives lost," he told reporters during a visit to the Bega evacuation centre.
"That's a great tribute to the community, to the firefighters, to all of that preparation and resilience."
Residents are anxious to return to inspect the damage, but authorities say they need to make the area safe before that can happen.
Power, utilities and communications need to be fixed and there's the possibility of asbestos "floating around".
Also causing access problems is the main road between Bega and Tathra being used as a control line to fight the blaze, which has burnt through more than 1200 hectares of bush.
The RFS downgraded its alert level to 'advice' on Monday night as fire activity eased, although it remains uncontained.
The township has been officially declared a disaster area. Euan Ferguson has been appointed coordinator-general to oversee the recovery operation.
The Insurance Council of Australia has also declared the fire a "catastrophe", meaning claims by those affected by the blaze will be given priority.
Australian Associated Press
