For Robert Rose, Tuesday, October 8, started like any other day at his home in Myrtle Creek, NSW, where he lives with his dad, brother, stepmother, and a heap of chickens, pigs and dogs.

Key points: Millennials Robert Rose, Chantelle Davis, Logan Stevenson and Theo Scholl all stepped up when it mattered most as Rappville burned

Millennials Robert Rose, Chantelle Davis, Logan Stevenson and Theo Scholl all stepped up when it mattered most as Rappville burned All showed extraordinary courage and poise under extreme pressure in their efforts to fight the blaze, which devastated the area

All showed extraordinary courage and poise under extreme pressure in their efforts to fight the blaze, which devastated the area The youngest among them, 13-year-old Logan, was home alone when the fires came and had to learn to drive on the spot

By the afternoon, the 23-year-old was watching what he described as a "freight train of fire" raging through the back paddock behind his property, which lies 14 kilometres south of Rappville.

"We came under an ember attack on the house," Mr Rose said.

"It was all alight.

"That's when my dad told me it was too late to save anything."

The plastic water tank melted in the fire leaving the Rose family without water for their farm animals. ( ABC North Coast: Catherine Marciniak )

The family escaped to the relative safety of the dirt road but Mr Rose was worried about his 84-year-old neighbour, Ray Smith, and waved down a passing car and convinced the driver to take him there.

"Ray was standing there stiff as a board," Mr Rose said.

"He didn't know what to do because he just watched everybody's house go up."

Robert convinced Ray to leave with his four working dogs and then headed across the road to warn another neighbour.

"By the time we left Fran's place with her dogs and her cats, the fire was already on her doorstep," Mr Rose said.

Worried that people did not know what was heading their way Robert jumped on a neighbour's quad bike and began visiting neighbouring properties to warn people of the fire.

"I knew we have nothing left here, we lost everything," he said.

"I just wanted to make sure everybody else is going to be alright."

Robert Rose borrowed his neighbour's quad bike so he could warn other property owners of the approaching fire. ( ABC North Coast: Catherine Marciniak )

Fighting fires with mum

Five years ago, at the age of 15, Chantelle Davis signed up with the Woodburn Rural Fire Service.

On the day of the Rappville fire, Chantelle and her mother, Raelene Davis, who is also in the RFS, got the duty call.

"It was just the two of us in our little Cat 9 truck," Chantelle said.

"We started going into property protection, trying to save the houses from burning down — so wetting down the houses, stopping any spot fires, trying to save whatever you can save."

Rappville man 'Mackie' thanks 20-year-old Chantelle and her mother Raelene for saving his home. ( ABC North Coast: Catherine Marciniak )

Ms Davis and mother were losing the battle to save a house when they noticed a frail older man trying to wet down his home with a garden hose, with no water pressure.

"We stayed there and hosed his roof down and hosed the house down to stop that one from catching on fire," she said.

"His windows are broken but his house is saved.

"He gave us a hug and he was very grateful."

Ms Davis said she was scared but finds courage in helping other people.

"It makes me feel good when they're safe, they're not injured, and they've still got what they have," she said.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 37 seconds 37 s Bushfires sweep through northern NSW

13-year-old rescues car full of animals

Logan Stevenson may be 'farm-wise', but his cool-headed act of courage last week surprised everyone.

Home alone, the 13-year-old noticed the sky turning red and black clouds of smoke billowing towards him.

His father was frantically driving from Casino to Rappville but got stopped at the road block on the other side of the fire-front.

Logan rescued his mum's baby emu and the family dogs by learning to drive a stick under extreme pressure. ( ABC North Coast: Catherine Marciniak )

Logan was on his own facing an advancing disaster.

"I ran around and let the animals out, shoved the dogs in the car, didn't want mum to be too sad, so I put the emu in the car because it's hers, and then tried to work out how to drive the car," Logan said.

Logan's driving experience is limited and he had never driven a manual before.

"I had to grab the instruction manual out of the glove box, stalled it a lot but got it going in the end.

"I just realised that if I couldn't get out in the car I wouldn't be able to get out and that would suck."

Logan Stevenson opened the animal pens on their farm before the bush fire hit, saving all but a few chickens. ( ABC North Coast: Catherine Marciniak )

Rappville was a four-kilometre drive down a road threatened on both sides by fire.

When Logan arrived at the sawmill one of the workers took over the wheel, driving Logan and his precious cargo to the emergency shelter at the school where he slept the night in the car.

The Stevenson's lost a couple of sheds on their property, but thanks to Logan's quick thinking, only a few chickens from the menagerie of 100 farm animals are missing.

"I just did what I needed to do," Logan said.

Eye on the top job

Theo Scholl, 18, is currently juggling studying for his Higher School Certificate with his volunteer work as a Rural Fire Service communication's assistant in the Incident Control Room at Casino.

Last week Mr Scholl was on a day off when he was called in to fight the fire threatening Rappville.

"The conditions were conditions we haven't seen before," he said.

"They were quite scary to be honest, it was quite a tough fight."

Volunteer rural fire service communications assistant Theo Scholl has his eye on the top job. He wants to be Commissioner one day. ( ABC North Coast: Catherine Marciniak )

Like many of his fellow volunteers Mr Scholl was fighting a fire front that not far away was also threatening his own home.

"Quite a few of my brigade were actually out fighting fires when their houses came under threat, quite a few lost stock and land, on our property we lost our shed, quite a few stock," he said.

"It's hard to be part of a community, which has been brought under these tough conditions."

Mr Scholl is quite pragmatic about why he volunteers, if not a little ambitious.

"Ever since I was a young kid I've always wanted to be a part of the RFS helping my community," he said.

"I want to have the top job as commissioner one day.

"I know us young people aren't expected to step up and do this kind of stuff, it definitely takes a lot courage and self-resilience.

"It also takes a lot of self-honour.

"It's alright to glorify yourself, be proud that you've done something good for your community."