Fifteen years since hell and fury visited Victoria, Mr Smith said he can still picture the flames as they travelled from Bracewell Street, Maiden Gully towards the centre of Bendigo.

Mr Smith was in Melbourne on the morning of February 7, 2009, but with the temperature reaching 45 degrees and winds of 100km/h he knew he needed to get home.

"At about 4pm there was a number of us here... hoping like hell nothing happened," he said.

"And then a couple of cars with ladies, a few minutes apart, pulled up and said 'do you know there's a fire out the road?'

"We were looking to the north and didn't really see what was happening behind us."

The Eaglehawk tanker was in Redesdale, leaving Mr Smith and his crew to fight a running grass fire with a pumper which had to be operated in a stationary position.

In Bendigo, one man died, and 57 homes and 115 outbuildings were destroyed.

More than 70 tankers, many from northern Victoria, helped fight the fire.

Mr Smith said he never expected the fire to start in the west of the region, let alone jump Maiden Gully Road.

"From a firefighter point of view, and being the captain of the brigade at the time, nobody really thought the fire was going to start over that side," he said.

"We were expecting it to come through straight in from the Whipstick [Forest], so it was a bit of a shock to us that it started over there.

"It could have been worse. It could have gone straight past the Salvos down here at Marong Road and kept going, as it turned out, it was about 700 meters from the [Alexandra] Fountain, which is a bloody bit of a shock."

It was mother nature which helped turn the tide in the battle, with a change in direction of the wind helping firefighters keep it in Eaglehawk.

"It just happened to be that the wind changed when it did and it came back where it started towards the tip, so we were fairly fortunate from that point of view," he said.

As well as the devastation, Mr Smith said he'd never forget the bravery.

"There were so many of the community that were throwing water from Eskis and buckets and goodness knows what, as they do," he said.

"They shouldn't have been there because the blimmin' fire was licking around their ears, but they were still throwing water at it.

"It was a remarkable day."

Mr Smith is convinced the people involved, and the surrounding community, still suffer.

"They still have nightmares and that's never going to go away, they just keep working at learning to live with it," he said.

"You can't change it and it must've been scary for a lot of them; it was bad enough for us."

The community pulled together in a way the firefighter veteran had never seen before.

"On the night, a couple of shopkeepers brought in big trays of lasagna for us," he said.

"The next weekend there were little stalls outside the shops in the main street and they were raising funds and cooking sausages... and then the funds come into the brigade.

"The community just worked together so well, not only to help us but to help the rest of the community as well, and that was the good part of it."

Mr Smith said being so close to fire, he understood its unpredictability.

"The fires or the weather; nature is going to do what it's going to do," he said.

"You belt it around the ears and try and change the direction of it a little.

"That's about all you can do."

Nobody wants to go through Black Saturday again, but Mr Smith said every time the weather is hot, dry, windy, or a combination of the three, it was "a good reminder".

"It's not the sort of day we want to happen again, but with the weather we're being getting, don't be surprised," he said.

"Being 15 years since Black Saturday, it's a good reminder for people to have a look at their property and see what they can do to make it safer."

Mr Smith said people should check over their fire plans, get them up to date and practice them.

"It can happen anytime, so we've got to be prepared," he said.