Daryl Otzen fell in love with the rolling hills of the Strathbogie Ranges within minutes of stepping onto a property up for sale.
He did not even look at the house on the triangle block before his mind was made up. The magical landscape had him sold.
Now it is all Mr Otzen has left after his home and all his possessions were destroyed in a roaring blaze locals have come to call "the beast".
"There's nothing left. The house, the garage, bikes, car, shed, tools, gone. I'm wearing someone else's clothes," the volunteer firefighter told AAP.
"But onwards and upwards, there's only one way up, and let's go."
Home to 164 people, the small town of Ruffy is almost unrecognisable after fire tore through the area destroying houses, the local school and community centre.
The signs of destruction are everywhere. Roads are littered with burnt-out trees, while paddocks are scattered with scorched livestock.
Yet the town's spirit remains unbroken despite the widespread damage, with the community coming together in force to support one another and plan ahead.
"It has always been a fairly tight community," Mr Otzen said.
"They will do what we need to get going and we will get everybody back on their feet."
The local Country Fire Authority brigade has become the centre of support over the weekend, and it's where Mr Otzen can now be found.
He was on the front lines battling the blaze when his own home, standing since the 1940s, was lost to the fire.
Mr Otzen had passed his property when the fire was raging through the town and could see the trees near his home fully alight.
"I just said, we can't go in. Let's keep going and do what we can," Mr Otzen said.
Walking through the ruins days later, he uncovered fragments of his home buried among the rubble including his mother's shattered porcelain dolls.
Nothing could be salvaged, not even his prized collection of motorbikes, including one he had owned for only six weeks now "a molten puddle on the concrete floor".
About half of the town's residents lost either their homes or a structure to the fire, which took many by surprise.
They had expected catastrophic fire danger but nothing could prepare them for the roar of the beast.
"My family has never seen anything like this. This is off the charts," fifth generation farmer Colleen Furlanetto told AAP.
"The 1965 fires was the worst fires Ruffy has seen. This is beyond compare due to the speed and the conditions, it was a beast."
Her family home was spared, but her uncle lost his "very old" house and the surrounding paddocks.
She said the damage stretches far and everyone in the community had been through hell.
The Longwood fire has burnt about 136,000 hectares since it started amid catastrophic conditions, and burns still as crews clear roads so help can flow.
The damage is heart-wrenching, said Ruffy Country Fire Authority captain George Noye, who stayed to fight the fires on Thursday when they went completely out of control.
Conditions became so intense that birds attempting to fly away started falling from the sky.
Mr Noye was helping his brothers and his 88-year-old father defend the family farm when all hell broke loose.
"It was fast and it roared, something I've never seen ... everything that it touched turned into ash," he said.
"I went to school at the Ruffy Primary School like many others, and to see it just totally destroyed, the whole street is unrecognisable, all houses and buildings are lost ... but thankfully our hall is still there."
Inside the local hall, dozens of donations are piling up including food, clothes and water.
It's these times when locals need to come together, Mr Noye said.
"There's mass trauma," he said.
"The support of people donating stuff is overwhelming."
