Every summer, Bill Ingall watches the direction of the Australian flag atop his garage intently.
His wife, Glenys, checks for the smell of smoke as she drinks a morning coffee on their verandah.
If a fire is on the horizon, they know - and they leave. The smell is an early warning sign, the direction of the flag an indication of where flames will travel.
Residents of Kearsley, near Cessnock, since 1984, the Ingalls are no strangers to fire.
On Tuesday, they left home before emergency warnings were issued to their suburb and neighbouring Abernethy as 52 hectares burned along Allandale Street and Kearsley Road.
No houses were destroyed but dozens of residents chose to flee before a text in part reading, "it is too late to leave", was sent by the Rural Fire Service (RFS).
Flames ravaged Abernethy in 1996 and burned every fence post on the Ingalls' property in 2002. The same year, their lounge room roof was destroyed.
Tourist Ronald Gillett was killed in that fire when his car became engulfed in flames just down the road from the Ingalls' driveway.
They remember it well. Mr Ingall was helped by Mr Gillett's wife when his own car survived a near-miss from flames. He had been travelling home and "used road feel" after his vision was entirely smoked out.
"There was smoke coming out the back of my ute and the mattress in my camper was smouldering," Mr Ingall said.
"And that's why we don't stay," Mrs Ingall said. "You just go. It's not worth losing your life. It just isn't.
"I shut all the windows, turn the gas off and we leave."
Mr Ingall, as ex-RFS volunteer, said Tuesday was a warning of the summer to come.
Hundreds of hectares of bushland around their home remain green. Within just weeks, fresh shoots from epicormic buds will begin sprouting from the charred foliage.
"And the canopy hasn't burned," the Ingall's neighbour, 17-year-old Lili Kebblewhite said. "This won't be the last [fire this year]."
"The green left in the tops [of trees] is a prime jumping example," she said, pointing to the crown of leafy eucalyptus along her family's fence.
Ms Kebblewhite stood in the driveway of a carefully-cleared property with three horses, three ponies, three goats, several dogs and 26 cats.
Her family's evacuation plan is marked by precision: cats go in her mother's painting van, ponies on a trailer, two horses in a float, and the cars packed with people. The goats have to stay.
"I imagine you know how goats can be," Ms Kebblewhite said. "It would be [very hard] to get them on a trailer."
During Tuesday's evacuations, the final animal - an old and much-loved horse - was walked out of the property by Ms Kebblewhite.
"I was last to leave the property with him," she said. "It was about 30 minutes before fire lipped our fence."
She spoke with a level of pragmatism few her age have - that is, unless they are used to the precision of safeguarding a large house from fire. For her, protecting her "pride and joy" horse Clarry is a top priority.
At the Kebblewhite's previous Kurri Kurri property, a fire raged near their back fence in 2016.
"We almost lost out house that day," Ms Kebblewhite said.
This time, the family left promptly for Kearsley Hotel, a couple of kilometres down the road. Their horses were tied up in the pub's carpark.
Kearsley residents were able to go back to their properties around 7:30pm on Tuesday. But despite their luck in avoiding the fire, the clean-up has been fierce.
Lloyd, 20, would usually spend his weekdays at work. On Wednesday, he spent hours helping his dad scrub bright pink retardant of their shed roof.
"It requires about five slow scrubs," his father Scott said. "It is really hard work."
Lloyd's mother Julie was thankful the RFS had proactively bombed their house with the retardant, though it had not been without some sacrifice.
She will likely not be able to eat most mulberries on their flourishing tree or harvest vegetables that have the spray on them. Rainwater tanks have been blocked up to keep the water uncontaminated.
"We are not sure about the health of this pink stuff and it's in the dam," she said. "We have been incredibly lucky, though."
Julie and her family have a double-brick bunker to the side of their house, where they keep important documents in case of a fire. They built it after the scare of 2002.
In neighbouring Abernethy, long-term resident Michael Penfold and his son Justin spent Wednesday raking leaves and taking debris from their yard to the local tip.
It was a long day's work, but one Mr Penfold did not mind doing in an effort to save his property. He remembers when flames from the 1996 fire tore down his back fence and taunted the timber house.
Unlike other residents we spoke to, the Penfolds decided not to leave on Tuesday.
"We had all the bath tubs readied up and we had a couple of buckets of water around," Justin said. "There were hoses ready on standby, just in case. We were constantly checking the fire map."
Despite trepidation about what is in store this summer, Kearsley residents are in consensus: they are lucky to live in their community.
"Our thanks to the firies for their effort," Julie said. RFS volunteers apologised to the family for dropping retardant on their property, but Julie considered it an important safety measure.
Mrs Ingall said the RFS teams, who came from Maitland and further on Tuesday, were "excellent". Crews continued hazard reduction into the week.
"I'm just really pleased and proud of the way they did this," she said. "They came through really quickly and all the resources were there."
More than 100 firefighters were on the ground on Tuesday, working around the clock to keep fire away from homes.
They were accompanied by groups like Rapid Relief Team volunteers, who fed firefighters and local residents on the fire front.
"It was like a big reunion, really," Mrs Ingall said. Her family - including adult grandchildren who came to support the couple - sheltered in town amongst old friends.
It is a small blessing Kearsley residents know they may need to rely on as a fierce season continues.
