More than a dozen people remain trapped in the Belowra Valley after fires cut off road access to the area, leaving residents and roughly 600 cattle in need of assistance.

Pippa Biglia said that her husband James, as well as her parents Keith and Deb Dance and her brother Ben, were as prepared as they could be for impending fires - but it mattered little when the blaze hit.

"They all went out thinking that with their massive fire break that they'd ploughed and with all the garbage cleared away, everything should have been fine," she said.

"But in seconds the house was on fire and in ten minutes it was gone.”