As the south-west begins to digest the destruction caused by Saturday’s major fire event, and communities begin to rebuild, Mr Andrews said his heart “went out to people who had lost everything – their home, their income and their livestock”.

Bernie Harris said it was a “miracle” no-one had died. Mr Harris, who lives at The Sisters and was a firefighter on one of the first trucks on the scene of the Ballengeich fire during the tragic 1983 Ash Wednesday fires, reflected on the conditions on Saturday night.

“The wind was just ferocious, vicious,” he said. “It’s just my opinion, but I thought this was worse than Ash Wednesday. But one was day time and one was night.”

Emergency Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said Saturday’s bushfires were “absolutely” worse than the impact the Black Saturday fires had on the south-west.

 He said there had been two other fires of significance in our history. Those two fires were eerily similar to the events that occurred across the weekend.

In 1977 there was a fire that threatened Penshurst.

“It started at Gazette and the wind change took it in around Penshurst,” he said.

"Then in 1983 there was the Ash Wednesday Cudgee and Ballangiech fires that were similar to this week’s Terang and Garvoc fires, running beside each other.”

Mr Lapsley thanked emergency service workers for their tireless efforts.

"Without a doubt we have had commitment plus from people who so willingly give their time,” he said.

“People aren’t complaining they get on with the job. They are out there in adversity, in the smoke, when it’s hot and dangerous. They are out there when they don't realise the impact of fires on their own properties. The self-less part of it is very humbling.”