Volunteer-based organisation BlazeAid set up in the region for months as its crews helped people clear and rebuild damaged fencing.

Wimmera service clubs helped the camp – the largest sustained support arrangement Horsham Rural City had ever seen – through catering and other support.

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Brian Carr co-ordinated the set-up of BlazeAid’s camp at Laharum’s Cameron Oval.

He said teams of three or four volunteers were allocated a property each morning and set off to help farmers.

“It is normal to have around 30 volunteers at any one time at a camp. During the life of the camp, we get several hundred volunteers passing through,” he said.

“The one thing that stood out from the beginning (in the Wimmera) was the enormous assistance given to me by some of the local community. We find that volunteers come from all over Australia, with many of them actually living on the road in their caravans and motorhomes.”

Mr Carr said the experience was emotional in many ways.

“Many of the volunteers know what to expect because they have worked with BlazeAid previously," he said.

“Some volunteers become very close to the families and can often be emotionally affected when they see what the family has been through. Counselling is sometimes needed.

“When a camp is first set up and farmers come in to register, many of them have a tear in their eye and tell you they have problems getting out of bed in the mornings because they don't know where to start. 

“After a couple of days, one can notice the change in the farmer who can see things are happening and that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. 

“To know that you might have even saved that person's life and have given them back their sanity is reward enough for the work we do.

“While fencing is what BlazeAid does, it's by no means the most important job we do. 

“Lifting the spirits of the devastated property owners, listening to the farmers and their families and just being there for them is the most important role we have.”

Lions Club of Horsham’s Bev Hawker, who co-ordinated the club’s catering work for BlazeAid and was club president at the time, said the experience was the highlight of her time as a Lion.

“We would have prepped in excess of 500 meals,” she said. “I was very lucky I had the support of my employers at the Cheeky Fox Cafe – it made it so much easier.

“I came home every night absolutely tired out and filthy dirty, but never ever so proud of what I'd done to help someone less fortunate.”