Maree Stockdale told the bushfires royal commission she “took a punt” when trying to find a safe path out of thick smoke surrounding her house on February 7.

Ms Stockdale and her husband George thought they had found refuge in Maiden Gully, at tennis courts just above their Derwent Gully Road home, when flames again started to bear down upon them.

A convoy of three cars tried to find safety, with Ms Stockdale in a car with her dogs in the lead and her husband and his son behind, but quickly became disoriented.

“It was a matter of just taking a risk and keeping going and hoping (George) and his son was OK,” Ms Stockdale said.

“By then the mobile phone had gone out, the dogs were absolutely distraught and I just kept driving; and I have to admit, at that stage I wasn’t sure if I’d come out of this alive.

“That was the first time I actually thought `maybe this is it’, but fortunately it wasn’t.”

She said driving conditions were extremely difficult and she quickly lost sight of her husband and his son.

“(There was) very, very thick smoke, embers, wind, cars nearly hitting you, people going this way and coming back.

“(I was) just clinging to the steering wheel and looking ahead and trying not to go off the road because it was hard to see, like a fog early morning or late in the night on the main highway.”

She said there was little warning of the blaze and no clear messages of where to go when the Bracewell Street fire struck.

The fire claimed one life, 61 houses and more than 100 sheds and other buildings.

“It was chaotic, really, and people just had to make their own decisions and way out.”