Brimpaens David Grimble, then the Country Fire Authoritys Grampians Group Officer and Horsham Rural City mayor, had been driving down Roses Gap Road with an authority operations member as the Northern Grampians Complex fire made its way through the Grampians.

On my assessment, and a number of people's assessments who had a lot of experience in the Grampians, we all thought the fire was still on track to impact on the Wartook Valley, he said.

I was asked to be a divisional commander, so I realised I needed to go and get some sleep. Even at that stage, the fire itself was quite docile.

Mr Grimble returned home and picked up his wife Jenny about 10.30pm, and they surveyed the fire ground.

There was a lot of fire activity, but it was further south than most of us thought it would be, Mr Grimble said.

I still thought Wartook Valley was problematic and we wouldn't be impacted.

Then, just after 1am on January 17, came the phone call that would change everything.

My son Josh rang to say the fire had jumped the road and was in a paddock just near us, Mr Grimble said.

The first thing I did was get in my vehicle and go down the road and have a look. I could see that it was going to come through the property about half a kilometre further north.

I thought we probably had 15 to 20 minutes until it would impact on the house. I thought that would give us some time not a lot to set up a few sprinklers.

I got the front-end loader and remodeled Jenny's garden for a bit. When I was doing that, I could see it was between the house and the dam.

Josh returned to the house and hooked the familys private unit to the back of Mr Grimbles vehicle before two neighbours and the fire arrived.

Mrs Grimble said the experience was horrific.

The size of the flames coming towards you is something I'll never forget, and an experience I never want to live through again, she said.

I hadn't fought a fire. I'd been with David earlier in the night driving around and I was just beside myself.

But coming home here and having to defend your own home as much as it was terrifying and I'd hate to do it again, I never felt like I was going to lose my life.

When I saw the flames, I did think, 'We're not going to save the house'.

It would have been half an hour, perhaps not even that, that it took to go through. And afterwards I remember just hugging Josh and crying.

Fire breaks, a green lawn and one heck of a fight helped the Grimbles save their home, but the fire wiped out a large part of their farm and hundreds of stock.

They later learned embers had found their way into the house roof, and burnt wiring back to the copper. At least 30 per cent of the insulation was destroyed.

It was not a naked flame, but like a cigarette, Mr Grimble said. You had burnt insulation, then a line of red glow, and it moved from one side of the house to the other.

Last year, the family re-clad their home and found burnt leaves and charcoal in the wall cavities.

The reminders of the fire remain visual, mental and emotional.

We still find ash and bits and pieces in glasses at the back of cupboards or wardrobes, and you wonder how it could get there, Mrs Grimble said.

As far as the farm goes, it won't look the same. It was really established.

I often talk about the fire to different people. But every time I talk about it, the emotion is still as raw as the day it happened.

We didn't have a chance to leave because the fire was more or less here within 15 minutes of Josh calling.

If he hadn't been in that little pocket of mobile phone service, we would have been in bed and it would have been right at our bedroom window.

But even if we had a chance to leave, we would never have left.

If we had, we wouldn't be sitting here now.