at the same time, thousands were stranded on the south coast of new south wales. we made the decision we were going to stay and we were going to go to the beach. madelene kelly was also on holiday. as fire swept in, she recorded what happened. i remember just being physically pushed by the winds, like, that was the scariest moment for me. i was trying to stay calm because there were kids screaming. oh... i'm, like, shaking. there were kids screaming on the beach. there were heaps of gas bottles exploding, i think maybe some cars, i don't really know. we just heard sounds and we saw fire where we thought our houses were. we could see that some houses had already been completely, like, razed. there was not even a structure left. it was completely flattened. at another tourist spot 70 miles away,