As the smoke rolled into Canberra on New Year's Eve and the clock struck midnight, Rebecca Kirby and Roary Beggs barely noticed. They had a good reason to be distracted.
Ms Kirby was in labour at Canberra Hospital, their first child on the way.
Just after 3am on New Year's Day, after more than 24 hours of labour, baby Maya was born, becoming the first baby born at Canberra or Calvary public hospitals in the new decade.
"I was in tears, it was love at first sight," first-time father Mr Beggs said.
Ms Kirby was able to help pull Maya into the world in the last stages of delivery.
"That was pretty cool," she said.
The heat and smoke made the last months of Ms Kirby's pregnancy particularly uncomfortable.
While the ward was mostly free of the thick smoke choking Canberra, the family will soon be heading home and doing what they can to keep the smoke out of the house.
"It was horrible, I didn't really leave the house for the last two weeks, I just sat in front of the air con," Ms Kirby said.
READ MORE:Future dawns for Ana, Canberra's first millennium baby
Mr Beggs hopes Maya will inherit some of his love of music.
"I play guitar so if she could pick up something musical that would be pretty cool," he said.
"Throughout the whole pregnancy we were singing to her while she was in the belly."
Above all, they just want her to be happy and healthy.
Maya, who weighed 7.2 pounds, has her mother's nose and father's head of hair.
While they'd usually be celebrating New Year's Eve with "a couple of cold ones", the birth of their daughter made it day to never forget.
"I don't think we'll ever be forgetting her birthday," Ms Kirby said.
