Blue Mountain bushfire survivors battle on

The sound of excavators, tradesmen and lives being steadily rebuilt is barely louder than the howling winds sending a eerily familiar shiver down the spines of those on Buena Vista Road.

It's almost a year since the Winmalee street in NSW's Blue Mountains was devastated by the most ferocious blaze the bushfire prone area has seen.

Subtle reminders of the day, a charred twisted car wreck here and blackened tree trunks there, sit opposite gleaming, newly-built homes.

In between there are bare blocks where asbestos materials have only just been cleared and "for sale" signs on revegetating properties that were too painful to return to.

For the lucky ones, whose family homes were spared by the unforgiving flames on October 17, 2013, they too face a battle - survivor's guilt.

"You don't know how to feel or what to say to people," Buena Vista Rd resident Maryann Hodson said.

"It was no one's fault but why is ours still standing?

"It's a funny feeling."

There is a burnt-out car and trailer in Ms Hodson's front yard where the bushfire cut its razor path through that day.

But her brick family home of 21 years is still standing, albeit with a heat-damaged roof that needs replacing.

As she shyly steps out of her front door and into her driveway, she looks at the changes taking place around her.

"The house across the road has sold," she says.

"As you can tell, the one down there has sold and the one in between the houses being built, she has moved on.

"I rarely go around but I am sure there are others."

Around the corner and out the front of a yellow timber cottage is a tree adorned with silver balls, each with a number representing the homes lost in the fire.

Nestled in a tree across the yard is a hand-painted sign declaring the home a survivor.

It's a bittersweet title for the owner Fran Elston.

"This is a pretty special street, Buena Vista," she said.

"Most of us have lived here for 35-40 years.

"I will be happy when they are all back."

Two hundred and four homes were destroyed in October last year when bushfires ripped through the Blue Mountains region.

The small village of Winmalee was hit particularly hard and the fact no lives were lost was nothing short of miraculous.

"We had guys on the ground that did incredible things out there that afternoon but I think we were lucky we didn't lose a life," Rural Fire Service (RFS) Superintendent David Jones said.

But that doesn't alleviate the pain the community grapples with.

"There is a lot of different parts that make up the community," Supt Jones, the Blue Mountains district manager, said.

"There are those who suffered direct loss, there is the people who have suffered indirect loss and also those that have a bit of survivor guilt."

Supt Jones said the biggest lesson learnt from the fires was complacency.

The 10/50 vegetation-clearing laws brought in after the event and community engagement programs are helping communities tackle that.

"It is difficult, and as a community member you do feel responsible and a bit of pain for them. All of my guys do."

One of those residents facing a rebuild is Springwood father Joe Moore.

The foster father to five and biological father to three is grappling with how he will meet the exorbitant rebuild costs for his home after adopting regulations like double window glazing and flame zones.

When the fire ripped through his home, Mr Moore and his wife had four foster children in their care alongside his three sons.

Despite the gravity of their loss, the family has found room to care for another child from Mildura in Victoria, where Mr Moore's other four foster children are from.

Mr Moore says the "five beautiful little kids" are extremely resilient.

"There was no future for them down there (Mildura) and the opportunities they have up here are brilliant even though we lost a house," he said.

After actor Russell Crowe heard about Mr Moore's plight, he donated $10,000 to the family last year.

Mr Moore is emotional as he describes the community's support over the past 12 months.

It's a sentiment shared by Winmalee RFS member Alison Church.

Ms Church was rushed to hospital while fighting the fire at Winmalee after she inhaled hot air.

She remembered the sense of bewilderment when she returned to the fire station.

"You turn up and there are friends you have grown up with who have lost everything," she said while wiping tears from her cheeks.

"You are trying to find people accommodation because they don't have a house, they don't have a car, they don't have any clothes; they just have what they turned up to the shed in.

"We banded all together and pulled it all together."

The residents and firefighters reflect on life after the fires; the weather conditions are hauntingly similar to a year ago.

It leaves many on their toes.

"It makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up and you think, well, here we go, what is going to happen today," Ms Church, who works at RFS headquarters in Katoomba, said.

"Luckily we have had a lot of rain and things are a lot greener then they were."