 This fire certainly demonstrated the unpredictability of fire and nobody knew where it was going to pop up next. The landline had gone, internet had gone, mobile phones had gone and we were reliant on the ABC Emergency Radio and we had a daughter in England who was saying mum and dad, what we can see on the television and here on the radio news over there, it's time you left. Paul Nugent is part of a family of the Bigger and whilst we were away he warned us by telephone that we might lose the property because the fire had spotted on either side of it and then rang us with the good news about 20 minutes later saying the fire had passed through and that the house and the garden was alright. When we realised that it was going to be a really bad fire season we started moving the flammable things inside, cutting flammable dead timber off trees and shrubs and things like that and generally tidying up the garden. We then laid the hoses along the veranda, the soaker hose and we also soaked the skilion shed out the back. And we had long soaker hoses on the 30 metres of grass in front of the house as well. Everything we did last year needs to be done again this year. It's going to involve more work because we've had such a good season. I think that if we were threatened again we would start the procedure a bit earlier.