It was just another day for mother and daughter Jane and Sarah Kedge, if a little bit hot.
Then black leaves started to fall on the back deck of their Duffy home.
"We thought that looked pretty sinister, pretty ominous. We thought there's obviously a bushfire pretty close," Sarah said.
They went for a drive to Chapman to see what was happening.
Black plumes of smoke billowed in the pine tree plantations behind Duffy.
They rushed back home, switched on the hose and started to pack the car.
It's been twenty years since the 2003 bushfires, but almost every year on January 18, Sarah and Jane walk through the Stromlo Forest Park to remember when a "fire like hail" rained down on them.
"It was really raining embers and to look across the road and see some of the houses ... we're lucky, but it was a dreadful day," Jane said.
After Jane's husband Jeremy put out embers from the roof of their house, the three packed up and left at the insistence of a firefighter.
They turned up to Coolemon Court to find Sarah's 30-year-old brother Dave anxiously waiting, unable to contact his family members who did not own mobile phones.
When the family eventually returned to Duffy, they found their neighbours' homes had been obliterated by the blaze. An old acquaintance, Doug Fraser, had died.
Driving down their street was "overwhelming".
"Our son got a terrible shock, because he hadn't been in any part of trying to save the house, he just wasn't there," Jane said.
"[We came] around the corner and he saw these four houses [burnt] together. He sort of broke down. He said, 'I can't believe that we were one of the lucky ones.'"
Sarah said her dad, who passed a few years later, saved their house.
After the fire, some neighbours rebuilt. Others could not live with the memories, and so moved away.
Four people died, and many more pets perished in heart-breaking circumstances. In the rush to get out, one neighbouring family forgot to pack the dog in the car, Jane said.
As years went on, and the city rebuilt, the memories didn't burn so bright.
There was a ceremony at the bushfire memorial on Wednesday afternoon to mark two decades since the devastating fires.
"It seems a very long time ago now, 20 years," Jane said.
"It'd be a very poignant day for a lot of people."
Sarah and Jane headed down earlier for some quiet reflection.
The particularly like the entrance way, brick walls curved like violent wind.
"There are some lovely words written on these plaques, we always like to look at those. We know quite a few of those people. And sometimes where there's just a single name, it's the pet, the dog of the family," Jane said.
Over the last two decades, people have come and gone from Duffy. Many retired to the coast, but Jane and Sarah have stayed.
They are still grateful to have been "one of the lucky ones".
But they always double check the oven is turned off before leaving the house.
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