Fred Kuhn, the past owner of Canberra's first surf and skate shop, Surf Scene, stood by a pile of his dead livestock on his property in Mt Fairy with his friend Tina Calisto.
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He'd lost 43 of the 150 sheep he owned on Tuesday as the fire burned through his pine forest, and he was still thinking about what happened.
"I'm in denial," Mr Kuhn said, delaying burying the sheep vets had put down earlier that day, he said neighbours had shot seven sheep they'd spotted dying along the nearby road.
Mr Kuhn wasn't the only unlucky one, floating through The Loaded Dog pub in nearby Tarago were unconfirmed reports of hundreds of dead stock across the region, with one owner losing 200 sheep in Lower Boro.
"It is very sad, isn't it," Mr Kuhn said, looking at a pile of the dead livestock, some with burned mouths, burned feet or bodies so burned so bad their organs had come out, each marked with a bloody hole on their forehead where vets had put them of their misery.
"Today is a much worse day than it was yesterday," Mr Kuhn said, describing the high winds and heat.
From his house he'd watched the winds pick up and carry the fire across his home, which had avoided the damage, but most of his paddocks were gone.
He'd just come from a chat with his neighbour’s David Rouse down the road, with Mr Rouse, his wife Pauline and their daughter Cassie Fry all singing the praises of the volunteer firefighters working through the night as the fire had narrowly dodged their home.
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