MORE than 100 people crammed into the Snake Valley Community Hall the morning after a raging grass fire had raced through the area, destroying several properties.
''It was fairly hairy for some of them", said Michael O'Connor, mayor of Pyrenees Shire and one of the firefighters who battled Tuesday night's blaze.
One of his colleagues was injured in the eye while fighting the fire, which razed four houses and at least 10 outbuildings.
''Some of the flames will rush at you before you can put out the embers,'' Mr O'Connor said.
A residents' group organiser said ''any time up to 10pm the wind could have changed and taken this hall out''.
They were still taking stock of their losses but, amid emotional scenes at the meeting, the chaos of Tuesday night was apparent. Some complained of problems with the Country Fire Authority website, with one man saying it had crashed four or five times in 20 minutes.
ABC radio was broadcasting the location of emergency meetings every 15 minutes, but Irene Stinger, whose house was about three kilometres from the fire, said she got only ABC Grandstand. ''I'm a cricket fan, but I don't want cricket when there is a fire on my doorstep,'' she said.
There was widespread praise for the work of local firefighters, one resident saying, ''We wouldn't have survived without it''. However, the same woman said the council needed to be more active in clearing the roadside during winter.
Another woman was up until 3am after embers started a fire on her property. One local said rumours it had been deliberately lit were wrong and that a vehicle left sitting in a paddock was responsible.
A register is being set up to identify and help those in need.
