VETERAN firefighter Alan Buckland battled the Ash Wednesday fires on the Terang tanker and said lessons learnt in that experience were crucial on Saturday night.
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Mr Buckland, 70, was fighting back flames at his son-in-law Stewart Benallack's Terang home with a garden hose late Saturday.
He was in extreme danger and the home within moments of being destroyed when a Warrnambool tanker arrived, helping save up to a dozen houses.
"It did get a bit warm and smokey. It was that warm that at one stage I ducked behind the caravan for a break," he said.
"But the house was saved. Thank Christ for the truck arriving when it did. We were fighting a losing battle."
Mr Buckland said the fire got about within 10 metres of the home.
"I came back from Queensland for the speedway season. I was on the Terang truck on Ash Wednesday (in 1983) and the one lesson learnt out of that is ‘don't panic’," he said.
"They were very similar days, Ash Wednesday and Saturday night. What probably saved us a bit on Saturday night was that so much long grass has been cut for hay. It could have been worse."
Mr Buckland even saved his 1923 T-model Ford he has been busy restoring.
Mr Benallack said his home – at the corner of Emeny Street and Peterborough Road – was within five minutes of being destroyed when the Warrnambool tanker arrived.
"It was up to my shed, on the east side of the house within 20 feet and on the north side 30 feet from the house," he said.
"I thought we had lost the house before they got there. The firies found my father-in-law by himself and then contained the fire."
Mr Benallack said Mr Buckland was fighting the fire with a garden hose.
"He had kept it contained but due to the smoke was disorientated. If the Warrnambool crew did not arrive he would have been in danger,” he said.
Mr Benallack said that the arrival of the Warrnambool crew was timely.
"Thankfully I've never seen anything like the fire. If the firies had been five minutes longer, we would have lost the house," he said.
"I would like to thank our neighbours and strangers who gave us a hand.
"It was disappointing to see members of the public interfering, trying to view the fire and what was going on, getting in the way of residents and the firefighters.
"We had someone park across our driveway.”
