Mrs Little is the daughter of Jim Landers, whose Scrub Road property was in the path of the fire. 

"People just came from everywhere," she said.

"There were hundreds of them, and a lot of young people. I don't even know who they were. I guess they just saw the smoke."

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Mr Landers said the blaze was sparked by power lines, with winds sweeping the fire across properties towards the New England Highway. He said if not extinguished so quickly the fire would have been across the highway and gone.

Although he lost a stretch of fencing and some pasture he was fortunate that the fire didn't damage the house although it did get into a shed nearby. 

The area was besieged by local landholders with firefighting equipment, along with Tenterfield Fire and Emergency and the Rural Fire Services including helicopters and the big 737 plane dumping water. His dams were sucked dry, but Mr Landers said everyone did a good job to stop it.

"It was a real display of community spirit," he said.

Daniel Townes deserves special mention for driving a bulldozer 12 kilometres for the Townes depot to grade around the house and up the hill to provide a fire break, where the fire was stopped.

Mrs Little said she doesn't know where everyone came from but they battled the blaze on all fronts, not needing direction.

She said the speed of the fire was amazing, moving from the ignition point on Quarry Road to the house very quickly.

Neighbour Colin Keevers of Alumy Creek Angus lost his Prado to the fire after it got stuck in a contour bank with the weight of a ton of water on the back. He and partner Lisa Martin had approximately 70 per cent of their property burnt out, accounting for around 95 per cent of their remaining feed.

Ms Martin said they were lucky that the RFS airborne firefighting aircraft were still in the region to help extinguish the blaze. 

"Otherwise it would have been on its way to Mt Mackenzie, or even to the Mole River," she said.