Residents have close call as Budj Bim National Park fire reaches the outskirts of properties

Many banded together to help the most vulnerable of their neighbours, some of them elderly.

Ardonachie resident Terry Sim said he was "'eternally grateful' firefighters worked through the night to keep the fire from destroying fences and razing farmland.

"They did a great job of turning those fires back," Mr Sim said.

He piled possessions and his dogs into a ute and left his property days earlier, after moving his 450 sheep to his easternmost paddock.

Mr Sim also helped move his elderly neighbour from the area.

But returning to his property on Thursday he said the blaze was a "wake up call" for him to improve his fire plan.

"With hindsight I would have trucked the sheep out as well," Mr Sim said.

The fire came within a kilometre of Mr Sim's property, which is surrounded by tall trees and bushland, including 70 hectares of his own semi-cleared land.

"This has been a lesson in carefully considering your fire plan for the benefit of your assets and your live stock, I'd say acting on the basis of the worst case scenario and early," Mr Sim said.

He said in the future he would do more preparation for fire breaks, which CFA volunteers had now helped him establish ahead of high temperatures again on Friday.

"It's not entirely safe yet," Mr Sims said. "And there's not a lot of time."

Jacquie Hodges, also an Ardonachie resident, said she decided to stay when an emergency alert recommended for her and her neighbours to leave their properties on Wednesday night.

"We just sat," Ms Hodges said. "The fire was three to four kilometres away.

"You could hear it was roaring but there was no wind."

She said her elderly neighbours were "very shaky" when they received emergency text messages.

"Our neighbour is 80 something, and the one up the road is 70 something," Ms Hodges said.

"It was really scary."

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