A rural community on the NSW Mid North Coast has escaped what could have been a major disaster, after fire broke out at their local service station on Thursday night.
Acting District Manager for the Rural Fire Service Guy Duckworth said emergency services arrived at the service station at Krambach at about 8pm and faced a potentially devastating scene.
"The fire was breaching through the roof of the building when units arrived on scene."
Mr Duckworth said crews were fortunately able to prevent the blaze from spreading.
"We were lucky; all units on scene went into what we call direct attack and contained the fire to the main garage building," he said.
"The building has been severely damaged, probably totally destroyed."
Local resident Belinda Cooper said she was overwhelmed by the amount of smoke "billowing" from the petrol station.
"It was thick and black and scary," she said.
"We could see the flames coming from the back and up through the roof [of the station].
"I was worried the petrol tanks were going to [explode]."
Ms Cooper said while it was a relief the fire was contained, the damage to the service station will mean the local community and businesses would lose out on passing trade from tourists who stopped for petrol.
"[But] it's sad for the community who have lost their service station," she said.
"I'm just happy everybody was safe and no more damage was done to the surrounding properties".
