Twenty years after fire turned Ric Hingee's house at Eildon Place in Duffy to cinders, he is ready for the next one.
He has rebuilt his replacement home to be fire resistant - not "fire proof", he emphasises - just resistant.
The foundations are concrete and the roof is metal. There are no gutterings to trap burning embers. Nor are there window sills outside where fire debris could land and set the rest of the building alight.
The back of the house has a series of tanks, with pumps and hoses already rigged. On the roof itself, there are tanks into which rainwater runs. For every millimetre of water that lands, 270 litres is collected for his pumps via pipes which go under the structure.
The water feeds an extensive sprinkler system, spraying water over the roof, outside walls and the decks which are the only wooden parts of the house. There are metal coverings to go over windows.
And if that doesn't work, then there is always the bunker in the basement, complete with oxygen tanks, helmets and walkie-talkies he thinks he would need to survive the 15 or so minutes while the fire-front swept through.
So deep is the memory of January 18, 2003 seared into his soul he lives now as though it could happen at any summer moment. He is in a state of perpetual readiness.
He remembers the day: "Everything went completely black. You couldn't see more than a metre in front of you. There was a howling gale. They said the wind has reached 240km/h. It was like several jumbo jets flying overhead. There was so much noise. Fireballs hit the first row of houses and bounced over the second row of houses. It was pretty scary."
Of the 16 houses at Eildon Place, only two survived, the two over which the fireballs bounced.
When Mr Hingee realised he could no longer fight the fire because the power for the pumps had gone, he left, picking up his dog and driving to safety.
When he finally returned at the end of the day, there was nothing but charcoal.
"All that was left was burning timber and bricks and twisted metal," he recalled.
He explained why he had rebuilt his home to withstand fire. ''I've spent a lot of time thinking about that day. There is probably an element of post-traumatic stress in what I've done," he said.
He remains amazed at the way the fire leapt, leaving a few houses unscathed but others next door destroyed.
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"They talk about ember attack but really whole burning branches were dropping down. Because there had been drought, every time they hit the ground, they would set it alight. The whole ground was covered with fire," he said.
He says if the fire returns, his wife would leave and he would fight the fire on his own.
"Our plan is that Melissa would leave with the important stuff and I would stay to put out spot fires after the fire front passes. I would stay and she would go," he said.
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