South Coast fires: Gunnedah firefighters reflect on time down south

Fire and Rescue Gunnedah's Tammey McAllan, Andrew Johns, Andrew George, and Monica Bentham returned to the north west on Sunday after five days in the field, and were relieved by David Welch, Nick Wild, and David Moses.

The relieving team are helping other crews in the Jindabyne area, as fires burn within the Kosciuszko National Park.

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Ms McAllan said while she was looking forward to sleeping in her own bed, she also wished she was back in the area helping out.

"I'd much prefer to be helping than sitting here not [helping]. If we get called upon and they need us then I'll be putting my hand up that's for sure," she said.

"You wish you could sometimes do more but I guess everyone is doing the best that they can."

Ms McAllan found it hard seeing the aftermath of the fires in towns like Mogo, the main street of which was almost fully destroyed, and said she felt for all communities affected.

"My heart goes out to the communities where they're sitting there and they don't really know what to do, whereas at least we're trained to do this, so it's sort of different for us," she said.

"We had to drive through Mogo to get to Jindabyne and it is quite sad to see a whole community hit ... but one thing that stands out the most is driving along, you see signs on the side of the road [in front of homes] saying people are welcome to drink water and use the toilet so it is quite beautiful seeing the community come together to help out."

She said residents also put pink ribbons on the houses of locals who were staying behind, so if firies needed to evacuate people they knew which houses to stop at first.

The current deployed firies will remain in the area for five days before returning home.