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In 2019, bushfires surrounded the New South Wales south coast town of Lake Conjola.
Weather forecasts proved inaccurate, blindsiding the community - who were not prepared for such a firestorm.
Former ACT Fire Chief Major General Peter Dunn was there.
"We were - my wife and I were on the beach. That morning we'd been for a run, looked back towards the west, back into the village, and we saw palls of smoke coming up. And that was the first we knew that the fire had crossed the highway."
Those bushfires left three dead, and destroyed more than 130 homes - 89 in just one suburb.
"It was pandemonium, it was very chaotic. And some people got out onto the highway. Others made their way through the fires to either the beach at Lake Angela or into the lake itself. Here was a period of time when the villages there were inaccessible. And people were essentially trapped."
These traumatic events from Australia's Black Summer are seared in the minds of emergency personnel attending a bushfire preparedness summit in Canberra.
More than 250 delegates from across governments and agencies are planning a cohesive response to the risks they fear are coming in the future.
Commissioner Rob Rogers, from the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, speaking to ABC News Breakfast.
"I think one of the important things is as we're seeing fire seasons change around the world and fire seasons overlap around the world is figuring out how we deal with these challenges in the future. Not just an immediate plan but a more longer term plan to make sure that we're doing the right thing by Australians and we're having that level of capability around the country."
The summit includes a disaster simulation.
Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt explains.
"We will put together a hypothetical situation that we might be facing this summer, to make sure that I'm frankly - to put everyone through their paces, government authorities, the non government sector, the private sector to make sure that everyone is ready for what might be happening. And if we identify some gaps in that process, then at least we've got time to fix it."
One of many recommendations from the 2020 Bushfire Royal Commission is yet to be completed, like establishing a national air tanker fleet.
Minister Watt has launched a new taskforce to streamline mobile and radio communications between first responders.
Major General Dunn, now a member of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action, also wants to see communities given better resourcing and a staffing boost for agencies on the ground.
"We need to put people in there who can maintain fire trails, or who can over the season respond and assist the volunteers. That means we really have to knuckle down and get these recommendations implemented."
Some states and territories are lagging in reforms, but Minister Watt has told ABC Radio National progress is being made.
"I'm not going to get into finger pointing or blaming states. We are trying to work with them cooperatively through that national meeting to deliver all of the recommendations."
The defence force will be kept on standby this summer, but the government wants to pare back the use of troops in disaster zones.
National community service is one proposed option to bolster support.
Brendan Moon is the Coordinator General of the National Emergency management agency - launched one year ago.
He says authorities are monitoring potential risks.
"I think we should recognise that the forecast from the Bureau of Meteorology this season recognises that yes, we are going to experience a warmer, drier spring and summer. But we also should prepare for the possibility of cyclones, floods, bushfires, and also heat waves. So the strategy for tomorrow is to look at what are our national arrangements to actually deal when we have those compounding and cascading events that may actually impact the nation during this high risk weather season."
