A "horrific" car crash that claimed the lives of five teenagers in Buxton has rocked a tight-knit community that only recently faced fires and floods.
Just a few hundred metres from the scene of Tuesday's crash is the spot where two Rural Fire Service (RFS) members died when a tree fell on their vehicle during the Black Summer bushfires.
And in nearby Picton, where the teenagers went to school, streets were inundated by floodwaters this year.
On Tuesday night five people died when a ute left the road at East Parade, rolled and hit a tree.
One of the victims was Year 9 Picton High School student Lily Van de Putte.
The ABC has received permission from Lily's father, John Van de Putte, to identify her but the other victims cannot be named for legal reasons.
The alleged driver, Tyrell Edwards, was arrested by police on Wednesday afternoon and charged with five counts of dangerous driving occasioning death.
Matt Gould is the mayor of the Wollondilly Shire south-west of Sydney, where Buxton and Picton are located.
He said the community was "numb and in shock" following the latest tragedy to hit the area.
"It's hard to put into words just how much everyone is hurting at the moment," Mr Gould said.
"Buxton [was] very, very heavily impacted by the fires a couple of years ago.
"And where this happened is quite close to where we lost two firefighters in another horrendous accident."
Mr Gould said Buxton was a "very close-knit village" of about 1,000 people, and some of the first responders "are likely to have known at least some of these kids".
"It's just heartbreaking."
Zyra Bryant, 18, said he went to the scene in the hours after hearing about the crash.
He described witnessing the cries of family members who also turned up, desperate to make sense of what happened.
Losing five teenagers in a small community will have an enormous impact, he says.
"I mean that's five less than we have, as silly as it sounds but yeah, everybody kind of knows everyone," Mr Bryant said.
"They were there, and then they're not there anymore."
The wreckage came to a rest outside Dave Pace's home on East Parade.
"Half the car was sitting here on the driveway … and then I look to the right and see the rest of the car around the tree," he said.
"You just try to do the best you can, try and help. But it was pointless because they were all gone, except the driver."
Camden police Superintendent Paul Fuller said the crash scene was the worst he had been to in 38 years.
"And a tragedy of this magnitude is going to have ripple effects for their family, friends and through the local community," he said.
Ebony McTaggart also came down to the scene.
"It's just horrible, just walking around even to the local shops, you can just feel the sadness from everyone," she said after leaving flowers at the scene of the crash.
Ms McTaggart also reflected on the string of traumatic events to hit the community, including recent successive floods and the Black Summer fires of 2019.
"The main town, the main streets of Picton, they were significantly impacted [by the floods]," she said.
"The fires, obviously, people lost their homes, their livestock, farms, animals, everything, so it's been a devastating few years."
But she said the community had — time and time again — shown its resilience.
"We all come together to do everything we can for anyone, even if we don't know them," she said.
The Black Summer bushfires also claimed the lives of two men from Horsley Park RFS near Buxton.
In December 2019, firefighters Geoffrey Keaton and Andrew Dwyer died on their way to battle the Green Wattle Creek blaze.
A tree came down in front of their truck, causing it to roll.
Afterwards, then-RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said NSW had "lost two heroes".
It took several months for firefighters to bring the Green Wattle Creek bushfire under control, during which time it burned through more than 270,000 hectares.
In March 2022, Picton residents lived under an evacuation warning for a week as floods battered the region.
Just a month later, evacuation warnings were reinstated when severe weather returned to the area.
Vision from the town showed waters rushing through the streets as flood levels at Stonequarry Creek rose.
Speaking in July, Mr Gould said four severe weather events had inundated the Wollondilly Shire this year.
The latest round of rain saw floodwaters rise to 16 metres, and flooding had savaged homes and roads, he said.
