When the Steels Creek community met on Saturday, the main question they grappled with was whether to rebuild now or to wait for the recommendations from the upcoming royal commission on how to fireproof their house.

Nobody knows better how to answer that question than Mr Twentyman. An electrician by trade, he has spent the past four years building his house and planning how to survive a fire.

He spent thousands on aluminium insulation and concrete-rendered walls. He bought sealant by the carton, rather than by the tube, to make sure that embers could never penetrate a nook of his place.

His two large water tanks were placed outside, in between his house and where the fire approached. He installed a sprinkler system on his house, which was only days off being completed but managed to water the exterior of the property with an industrial pump he had bought.

He cleared trees in his immediate vicinity - much to the dismay of his neighbours, who objected.