Amid scenes of destruction in Harcourt, some bushfire survivors plan to rebuild. Others may have lost too much

Harcourt CFA firefighters Jess and John Bell. Their house survived despite everything else on the property being destroyed in Friday’s fire. Photograph: Ellen Smith/The Guardian

Looking out over the charred remains of Jess and John Bell’s garden in Harcourt, all you can see of their closest neighbours’ houses are brick chimneys, standing among tangles of corrugated iron.

It’s with mixed emotions the young couple, both Country Fire Authority volunteers, describe the “miracle” in which their Victorian weatherboard – a fixer-upper they were “literally about to start renovating” – was saved while many homes on their street were destroyed.