CUT holes in a black blanket and drape it across the Adelaide Hills.

Poking up through every hole will be a house someone can go home to.

From the air, the fire battles fought and won are obvious.

Red tiles, green Colorbond and shiny galv are welcome sights on a charred canvas.

The CFS trucks have moved on, leaving house after house standing.

The narrowest of margins separates many a home from the blackened paddocks that surround it.

A gully away to the left or two little hills to the right, the fight continues.

“The fire”, as it’s known down in the suburbs, appeared to be one mighty pall of smoke yesterday but there is more than one fire ground.

By far the largest is the original Sampson Flat blaze, which has thrown a pall of white smoke over Kersbrook and Humbug Scrub.

Feeding on strong winds and high temperatures for the first two days, the Sampson Flat fire spawned second and third generations of blazes that continue to burn.

From 3500ft, they can be seen in all directions. One is working its way up a hill and being met by CFS units, another is crackling through pine trees; many are in difficult terrain hard to access.

Elvis, the firefighting helicopter, looks like a mosquito as it hovers and sucks up water from Millbrook Reservoir, before dumping its load and shifting north to another hotspot.

On the helicopter’s radio, communications can be heard between aerial fighters and ground crews.

“That guy’s in a bit of strife,” someone observes.

There are warnings to Elvis’s pilot to avoid towers and power lines, and firies on the ground, and someone else breaks in to curse some unauthorised backburning.

There is a lot going on but, at the same time, the roads through the Hills are virtually empty, except for the determined movement of emergency service vehicles.

Many residents have evacuated but others are simply staying close to home.

In the southern reaches of the danger zone are the towns of Woodside and Lobethal, which have been listed as in danger but which appear to be a world away.

They are surrounded by rows of green orchards and vineyards, dams and cattle, and farmhouses.

There are no spot fires on the nearby hills and valleys but strong winds in coming days could change all that