Almost four decades after the Ash Wednesday bushfires, the smell of smoke still triggers a raft of emotions for Kristy Plozza.
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The 47-year-old Warrnambool woman said the smell took her back to the day she got off the school bus at Brucknell.
"The fire brigade was there and they told mum there was a fire," Ms Plozza said.
Her father Patrick was a volunteer firefighter and had been called out to help.
Ms Plozza, her mother Jennifer and her three siblings sought safety in their home.
"Mum was in a panic," Ms Plozza said.
She said the family stayed home for quite a while.
Ms Plozza remembers the red glow of the sky and the smell of smoke.
"The whole sky was orange and black and all we could smell was smoke," she said.
Eventually, Ms Plozza's father got a message to his wife, telling her to leave.
Ms Plozza remembers grabbing photo albums, their cat and their mother bringing wet blankets for the trip to nearby Timboon.
"We were in such a panic," she said.
"It felt like it was so close."
Ms Plozza said she and her siblings were sad when the cat jumped out of the car before they arrived in Timboon.
She said it was a shock to return to their home a day or two later, only to find a pile of rubble.
"I just remember wondering where our house had gone," she said.
"Our whole house was just a pile of rubbish on the ground."
Ms Plozza said the randomness of the fire was evident, with her grandparent's home next door still standing.
The family lived with them while their home was rebuilt.
Ms Plozza said she still got emotional thinking about the day and the lives that were lost.
She said she remembers visiting a number of halls in the district where fire affected families could collect items.
"We could pick any toy we wanted," Ms Plozza said.
One memory that sticks in her mind is when the library teacher asked her where her overdue library book was when she returned to school.
"I told her it had burnt," she said.
Ms Plozza remembers that was the last time the overdue library book was mentioned.
Six months after the fire, the family's cat Brooster made its way back home.
Ms Plozza knows her family was lucky to escape unharmed on that fateful day 38 years ago.
A number of other people shared posts on social media this week, sharing their memories of the Wednesday, February 16 back in 1983.
In Victoria, 47 people died, while in South Australia there were 28 deaths.
The memories of Ash Wednesday are still vivid in the minds of Naringal CFA members Kelvin Boyle and John Mahony.
Mr Mahony, who was the Incident Controller on the day, can still recall the conditions like it was yesterday.
"The winds were howling, they were ferocious," he said.
"I remember thinking if something went wrong we'd be in trouble. I remember seeing a water tank blow straight off its stand.
"It still raises the hairs on the back of your neck."
The day started like any other for Mr Boyle, then 44, who was carting cattle when he received a call about a fire at Cudgee.
"It wasn't even a total fire ban that morning when I started, then at around 7am they declared it as the conditions wound up and up," he said.
"We didn't have mobile phones back then, there was one radio in your truck and that's all we had.
"It just got hotter and hotter, temperatures reached around 40 degrees, then once you got around the fire it would have been 50 degrees-plus."
The two firies are made of tough stuff; both are from farming backgrounds and have been volunteering for the CFA for more than 50 years, following in the footsteps of their fathers before them.
Over that time they've seen their fair share of eye-opening scenarios but the memories of Ash Wednesday still bring them to tears.
Nine people died in the fires that started in Cudgee and Ballangeich, which burnt 50,000 hectares and 157 houses, 715 buildings and killed 19,300 sheep and cattle.
"A fair few lives were lost, and we knew most of those lives," Mr Mahony said.
"A lot of sad things happened that day, a lot of things you hoped would never happen again.
"Fire is a wonderful friend but a terrible master.
"It was a big learning curve, we'd never had a fire like that in the district before.
"You try and make the best decisions you can at the time, you get in there and help your neighbours as best you can because one day that fire might be at your place and you'll hope they would drop the tools to come and help."
It was because of Ash Wednesday that Anne Anderson joined the CFA.
"I was teaching at Timboon and my partner called to say get home so I left the Timboon school and was heading home to Nullawarre when the fire cut me off down on Timboon Road," she said.
"When it looked like it was getting too close I decided to head up to Terang up Ayresford Road.
"I pulled into a paddock, there were quite a few cars there already, and we all just waited under our blankets in the car.
"It was a fair while, once the fire front passed we picked our way back to our homes.
"Fortunately fire bypassed us, we had a couple of acres that we had fortunately overstocked so the cattle had eaten the grass completely down.
"The fire came and burnt the fence posts but it didn't go into the paddock because there was nothing there.
"The experience prompted me to join the CFA as a volunteer.
"Once you've done the training it helps to allay your fears because you know how well-trained people are and what they are capable of."
She said the local brigades were looking for volunteers.
"There's always a need for volunteers they are the backbone, they are the CFA," Ms Anderson said.
"Without volunteers we'd all be in dire straits."
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