A week after fire ripped through their property near Yeppoon on the central Queensland coast, Mark and Jenny Taylor are counting not only the cost but their blessings.

A colourful collection of stuffed toys brighten the blackened entrance to their Bungundarra Road home, welcoming a steady stream of friends, neighbours, and colleagues who keep turning up to lend a hand.

The visitors drive slowly past the long rows of charred mango trees towards the dark brick house that was damaged, but not lost, to the flames.

Out the back, a large shed and everything inside it has been reduced to ashes and crumpled sheets of corrugated iron.

The granny flat that Jenny's ageing father lived in is also a pile of rubble.

"We just finished rebuilding it and moved him in a few weeks ago," Mr Taylor said.

The toys Mark Taylor placed at the end of his driveway. ( ABC Capricornia: Megan Hendry )

How it unfolded

Firefighters faced quite a different scene when they responded to Mrs Taylor's triple zero call at the height of the Cobraball bushfire emergency.

Station Officer Gary Davey and his three-man crew from Rockhampton could not see more than a few metres up the dirt driveway for the huge amount of smoke.

"We didn't know whether we could take the truck up there, and if the situation was bad whether we would be able to get the truck out or not," Mr Davey said.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 1 minute 35 seconds 1 m 35 s Cobraball residents describe devastating bushfire

He and another firefighter donned breathing apparatus and walked the 200-metre driveway, unaware of what they were heading into.

"The shed was on fire on one end," Mr Davey said.

Mrs Taylor was in the house just a few metres from the shed with her mother and father, her teenage son, and their German shepherd puppy Charlie.

Mr Davey gave the all clear for the fire engine to make its way through the smoke and the family was bundled into the backseat and delivered safely to a waiting ambulance.

Mark Taylor and his family lost boats, a caravan, a shed, and a granny flat. But their home was saved. ( ABC Capricornia: Megan Hendry )

Around the same time, Mr Taylor, a Rural Fire Service volunteer, had raced back to his property from where he had been fighting the fire on a different front.

"I didn't see [my family] go. We were over in the corner, protecting that part of house," he said.

"I knew they were in good hands."

Saving the house

Mr Taylor said with water running out they had to focus their firefighting efforts on saving the main house.

"We had to leave the shed go," he said.

Mark's father Lewis Taylor's guns were burnt in the blaze. ( ABC Capricornia: Erin Semmler )

"We started cooling down the gas bottles and then I jumped on the roof. They passed a hose up to me and let me hose down the roof."

Over the following hours and days, Mr Taylor and his Rural Fire Service crew continued to fight the fire wherever they were needed.

"I was reasonably confident we were okay here. We had some friends who stayed and kicked out embers and watched it for us," he said.

Road to recovery

A week on, the Taylors have finally had a chance to reflect and begin the recovery process.

Family friend Grantley Jack donated this demountable building to replace the Taylors' destroyed granny flat. ( Supplied: Mark Taylor )

"I've been involved in some quite intense [fires] … but this was one of the biggest fires I've ever seen in the region, and the most damaging," he said.

Mr Taylor's shed was insured, but most of the contents were not.

"Most of it is memories. It's fine. We'll get by and rebuild again," he said.

His neighbours lost homes, sheds, crops and livestock.

As willing workers continued to turn up and lend a hand on the weekend, Mr Taylor said the support of friends and the wider community was helping them to move forward.

Mixed emotions

Grantley Jack, a family friend of 30 years and a local business owner, donated a demountable building to replace the Taylor's destroyed granny flat.

His employees spent a day working to set it up.

"The boys have offered to do it for free but they've got families as well, and we've got to keep them fed and happy and make sure everybody is looked after," Mr Jack said.

He even went to the trouble of laying fresh rows of turf at the doorstep of the demountable and setting up "a little beer garden" under what used to be a shade-giving poinciana tree.

"It's just nice to see them a bit happier. Obviously emotions are running high there and you just want to try to ease their stress and grief a little bit," he said.

Mark and Jenny Taylor say the support they've received from the Yeppoon community has been wonderful. ( ABC Capricornia: Megan Hendry )

Mr Jack said the community was rallying to support the people who needed it.

"There's different emotions out there. There's mixed emotions of anger and frustration and obviously despair and all of those things," he said.

"But we all rally together and we get by and we help each other. That's what this little community does," he said.

"What Mark and Jen do for this town is amazing and it's always good to give back to them because they're always helping people."