Residents of Rainbow Flat in NSW have returned to their homes after severe bushfires destroyed much of the area to find out what is left.
WATCH: Bushfire residents see their burnt-down home for the first time
The horror of the NSW bushfires, which have been raging since last week, ripped through the community, which is about 20 kilometres south of Taree.
Rainbow Flat couple, Lyn and Peter underwent the heartbreaking task of returning to their home to see the damage on Monday morning.
A clearly distraught Lyn covered her mouth in shock as the pair walked towards the remains of their home.
“Lyn, Peter, I’m not going to ask you how you are, but this is what’s left,” said Sunrise presenter Matt Doran, speaking from the rubble of the property.
“Yeah,” said Peter, holding an arm around his emotional wife Lyn, “But it’s only things.”
“We’ve got family, and we’ve got our lives.
“And we’ve got great neighbours and great friends, and they’ll all rally together.
“The fire brigade, I cannot say anything more highly of them,” Peter said.
As Matt went on to explain the home had previously been a two-storey dwelling, the couple confronted their loss.
“Lots and lots of memories,” Lyn said, walking up to the smoking remains of her home.
“We’ve still got a few left in the house, lots of people have got nothing,” she said.
Luckily, Lyn explained, the couple were renovating their home, and so a lot of their possessions had been moved to the shed, which had been saved from the inferno by their neighbours.
The couple said their property had consisted of their two-story house, stables, a granny flat and laundry.
Peter confirmed that everything inside their home has been lost.
“It’s a total loss,” he said.
“The neighbours captured this inferno, as it went up,” said Matt. With the couple then shown the heartbreaking footage as their home was burnt to the ground.
And then the extent of the loss hit home for Lyn.
“Oh my goodness, oh my goodness,” she exclaimed, as they picked through the site of their former home.
Lyn was clearly overcome by the loss, but said she considered that they were still lucky.
“Aren’t we lucky,” she said.
“We’ve got each other.
“Some people don’t even have anything,” she said, looking around her former community of Rainbow Flat.
“We’re blessed. We’ve got so many lovely people around us, we’re really blessed.”
The couple praised the work of the firefighters who have saved the lives of numerous people, and prevented the loss of many properties.
They also touched on their appreciation of the hard work of their neighbour, Geoff Brisby and his son and grandson, who had fought the fire as best they could, putting their own lives at risk.
“Our neighbours saved our other part of our house,” said Lyn.
“They fought right up until the last minute,” she added in thanks.
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