THE SMALL tight-knit community of Girralong in the upper reaches of the Nambucca was well and truly in the cross-hairs of the beast 12 months' back.
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Two weeks after a firestorm shredded South Arm, Girralong was on edge - with due reason.
On three flanks, large fires were bearing ever nearer - Kian Rd, the monstrous Carrai East and the Andersons Creek blaze.
"It was only the rain the Monday before Christmas Day that saved us. We certainly dodged a bullet," Girralong Rural Fire Service brigade Training Officer David Phillips told the Guardian.
A year on from that closest of encounters, things could not be more different.
"We just ticked over 600mm this month," David said.
And in the wake of the emergency, the brigade has picked up six new members.
The resilience and service of the brigade was recently marked with the formal presentation of NSW Premier's citations, certificates and commemorative caps.
These were awarded to 11 members, one posthumously, to Mark Sutter.
Paula Flack accepted Mark's citation on his behalf, as she did a 40-year Long Service Medal.
RFS Lower North Coast zone manager Superintendent Lachlann Ison and staffer Narelle Jones (who came as Santa) did the honours.
The occasion was made all the more special as the brigade was presented with a new Cat 9 vehicle (their old one was borrowed for the campaign in the Macleay last year, and then, incredibly, stolen from the Fire Control Centre compound at Kempsey).
David said the reinforced brigade was now looking to 2021, and some joint-trainings with other Nambucca brigades to help bring on their new recruits.