Rural Fire Service volunteers from Michelago and neighbouring brigades have been fighting bushfires since August.
They have been up to north to Glen Innes, down south to Eurobodalla and west to the Snowy Valleys.
But this weekend crews will be protecting their own with Michelago in the line of the Orroral Valley fire.
The NSW RFS fire spread prediction map showed the beast marching right through the town on Saturday.
Prior to the map being released, Michelago Rural Fire Brigade captain Brent Wallis was already braced for the fire to reach the village, 54-kilometres south of Canberra.
He said he also expected it to hit the NSW side of Smiths Road, Collinton and Bredbo.
Severe fire danger forecast across south eastern NSW and ACT for Saturday. Under these conditions, a number of fires will spread and embers may be experienced if fires flare up. Check fire prediction maps at https://t.co/v0YTVv1hBD#nswrfs#nswfires@ACT_ESApic.twitter.com/gzI1bPZSlD
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) January 31, 2020
"From my experience and from everything I've got all the forecasts, latest up to date line scan on where the fire is, it's going to be pretty much here tomorrow," he said.
"Smiths Road and Michelago will be impacted first and then it will fall back into Collinton and Bredbo."
Mr Wallis and his crew were busy putting in containment lines on Friday and were waiting for a large air tanker to drop a retardant trail around the town.
The Orroral Valley fire had started spotting over the border on Friday, but as of 8pm the main firefront had not crossed into NSW.
When that happens, Mr Wallis said Michelago and nearby brigades were prepared.
"We've got trigger points in the ACT, a trigger point for us means once a fire reaches there were start moving to another level of preparedness," he said.
"I'm the group officer up the northern end here, I've split Smiths Road into a division, Michelago and Anembo as well as Collinton and Bredbo.
It's going to be pretty much here tomorrow.
Michelago Rural Fire Brigade captain Brent Wallis
"We are all running our own divisions to prepare and then when the fire comes out into one of those four brigade areas that will become a NSW division."
Mr Wallis said the communication between ACT and NSW could be better.
"They need to do a bit more work on providing information to NSW so that's the other frustrating side of things but in this day and age it's easy to access those sorts of things," he said.
The mood of locals in Michelago on Friday was subdued but they remained somewhat hopeful.
Many were stocking up on supplies at the Michelago General Store.
The Michelago Region Community Association has a list of all the people in town who were planning to stay and those going.
Michelago resident Romney Kelly, who managed the list, said the vast majority had planned to stay and defend.
"Probably without knowing the full percentage, maybe 90 per cent of people are choosing to stay to fight fires or any ember attack," she said.
"It seems to be more property holders are staying, the ones that are going are more families."
Ms Kelly has been helping the RFS with sending out vital communications via social media and other channels to help keep the community informed.
She was one of the 90 per cent who had planned to stay but she had already implemented her bushfire survival plan on Friday morning.
"I actually enacted my bushfire survival plan this morning, so I've got three kids so I opted because I would be doing this and needed to be able to funnel out information," Ms Kelly said.
"I chose to enact my bushfire plan and I dropped my kids and my dogs off to my mum in Canberra this morning and they have gone back to Yass."
Ms Kelly said she felt the town was well prepared.
"I'm feeling good, these guys are awesome, they have it all under control or as under control as it can be," she said.
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