"They've just collapsed in, so they'll just have to be bulldozed away and new packing sheds put in," he said. "We will have some fruit before 12 months because there's probably suckers growing up there at the moment that are probably 10-foot high that we might get a bunch off." Between the two of them the Spear's lost about five hectares of bananas. Mr Spear is also the treasurer for the Australian Banana Growers' Council and was at a board meeting in Brisbane when the fire ripped through his farm. "I had two other brothers here in the area and they said it was the most terrifying situation they've ever been with regard to fire," he said. "My brothers said there were 1,000 firefighters and 100 fire-bombing aircrafts there. "Even the big mountain behind us, which is the Whip Mountain, you can see between the trees, the top of the ridge on the Whip Mountain, which has never ever happened before." 'It was a firestorm we shouldn't have been in' Carolyn and David Duff thought they were prepared for the fire that hit their property at Toorooka, north-west of Willawarrin in the Upper Macleay Valley. "We had tractors and spray rigs and water and generators, we had what we thought was enough to protect us," Mrs Duff said. "Looking back now and after going through it, we were never ever going to stop it. It was igniting 12 kilometres in front of the fire. "We had embers and we had fire racing at the house and we were protecting the house as best we could, but the pump was down on the river actually got burnt so the generator wasn't any good to us. "I breed Labradors. I had 12 of them. I just ran out and opened all their gates and ran to the house with them, locked them in the house, then went back trying to put out the fire around the house. "We are an open country, there's nobody around us. We have no feed because we're in drought." The Duffs say they were lucky to escape alive. Dave has said to me that he thought he was going to die," she said. "I can't believe how we are alive because it was a firestorm that we shouldn't have been in. "We thought we were prepared. We know the country, we know fires, we are prepared. And we have never seen anything like this ever. It is catastrophic and you will never beat it. "If you're insured, even if you're not insured, just go. There are people that have lost everything. There are 20 houses that I know of right now that I can see from the round that have burnt to the ground." The couple did manage to save their homestead and 400 head of cattle when the fire burnt through 1,000 hectares of farmland but they lost a cottage, machinery, vehicles and working dogs. "We have lost two headers, bulldozers, spray rigs, tractors, bikes, whatever you can think of to farm with we've lost," Mrs Duff said. A fire on their property at Pee Dee further up the valley past Bellbrook also burnt feed and three sheds. Fast moving fire wipes out sawmill at Forbes River Gemma and Brett Porter's property is at the top Forbes River, between Walcha and Wauchope, where they run 400 head of cattle and operate a sawmilling business. The sawmill was completely destroyed along with everything in it.