Five minutes after they first smelt smoke, residents of Londonderry, in Sydney's outer north-west, were joining firefighters in the frantic battle to save their homes from bushfires yesterday.
The situation remained tense last night as fires continued to burn near Londonderry, and a separate fire at Mount Ku-ring-gai threatened factories near the F3 motorway.
At Londonderry, farm buildings and vehicles were left as burnt-out shells after the fire front passed through properties along Whitegates Road and The Northern Road between 1pm and 3pm.
About 110 firefighters from both the Rural Fire Service and the NSW Fire Brigades were able to ward the fire away from homes with the help of two water-bombing aircraft.
The danger to property had eased by about 6.30pm.
The blaze may have started in or near a shed on Whitegates Road, the Rural Fire Service said last night.
Chris Dening, who lives next to the shed, told the Herald he was inside his caravan when he first smelt smoke and went outside to investigate.
He found part of the building ablaze.
"Five minutes, mate, that's all it took, and everything was wiped out," he said, after the shed was reduced to ashes.
"It was one of those do-or-die situations and we were just running around like mad, hosing anything we could, trying to salvage anything."
One thing he could not salvage was a nearby car, owned by Jesse O'Bryan, which was completely destroyed.
"Five thousand bucks - it's gone now," said Mr O'Bryan, who had intended to register and insure the vehicle next week.
The blaze moved rapidly along the north side of Whitegates Road, and firefighters warned residents to stay indoors and don heavy clothing.
Many took the opportunity to water their properties and pack away mementoes in case they had to make a dash.
A resident of The Northern Road, Carol Sarkis, was inside her home with her three children when the phone rang.
"I was happily here in my air-conditioning, cooking cakes and ironing, and a girlfriend of mine rang, who was down the end of the street, and said: 'Do you want me to come and get the kids?"' Ms Sarkis said.
"I said, 'What for?', and she said, 'There's a fire out there.' It was just smoke at that stage but it didn't take long before I could see the fire.
"It was coming very quickly, at which time I knew it was coming."
The family lined a firebreak next to their home with sprinklers and, within minutes, a metre-high wall of flame raced through the family's back paddock, leaving it blackened.
They rescued 16 greyhounds from the path of the fire, putting out spot fires with wet towels, as firefighters protected their home.
A Whitegates Road resident, Amanda King, said she was shaking as she packed up family photo albums, while her sons turned the hoses on the garden.
"I had to be calm for my four-year-old-son, Bailey, who cried when he saw the flames," Mrs King said.
"I was shaking a lot but then the adrenalin kicked in."
The wind pushed the fire 300 metres down the road, the property was spared.
"We were pretty lucky the wind didn't change when it was closer," said Mrs King's husband Stephen.
"Things could have been a lot different."
One truck driver said that vehicles worth $500,000 had been destroyed.
"They're letting reporters and news cameras walk right past them to get in there but they won't let any of the people in there to save anything," said the driver, who asked not to be named.
The Londonderry fire burnt out about 40 or 50 hectares of bushland, and flames reached three metres in height, fanned by 43-degree temperatures.
The temperature at the fire front reached 300 degrees, the Rural Fire Service said.
The Rural Fire Service Chief Superintendent, Bruce McDonald, said he had spoken to many residents and some had been distraught.
The fire near Mount Ku-ring-gai was still burning last night, but flames had been beaten back from factories by water-bombing aircraft including an "air crane" helicopter.
Several other fires were still burning around the State last night.
Near Singleton, firefighters were monitoring a grass fire burning within the bomb impact zone of an army range, while a camp site was evacuated when a bushfire near Evans Head on the NSW north coast got too close.
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