The decision was simple for Marysville policeman Peter Collyer and his colleagues.
Either escort about 200 residents through a 10km stretch of road where the bush was burning and risk dying on the road, or wait for almost certain death.
The senior constable, who has been stationed at Marysville for six years, and three others from nearby towns, led a 50-car evacuation from Gallipoli Park oval on the evening of Saturday, February 7.
The town was burning and at least 43 people had been killed.
The convoy moved along a dangerous road, and the policemen's actions have been credited for saving about 200 lives.
''There was burning debris starting to land around the police car and hit the bitumen road, and we decided it was now or never, and off we went,'' Senior-Constable Collyer said.
''It's a 10km journey from Marysville to Buxton in the north, which is where everyone was heading to safety.
''My fear was that if the fire breached the bushland, it would breach the road and then we'd all be trapped, including the people we were getting out.
''You had to take that risk because there was nowhere else to go, and it was in my opinion certainly a death trap if anyone stayed.''
Senior-Constable Collyer and Woods Point Leading Senior-Constable Ken Dwight were in a police 4WD at the rear of the 50-car convoy, and were confronted with burning sticks, sparks and ash falling on the car.
Alexandra policemen Ian Hamill and Andrew Walker led the survivors north.
Together with Marysville policeman Ian Thompson, who stayed in the town's CFA building as the flames swept through, will be nominated for bravery awards.
Just don't call them heroes.
Senior-Constable Collyer said what they did was ''what any copper would have done.''
Senior-Constable Dwight, a 20-year police and Country Fire Authority veteran, said experience helped but it was largely training that came to the fore during the emergency. Leading Senior-Constable Hamill said when the police arrived at the oval, those gathered there resembled ''Brown's cows''.
''I asked them to remain calm and do not panic, but we only had two or three minutes before the fire would be on top of us. They were very, very scared and we were doing the best we could to put on a brave face.''He said while the oval did not burn the fire reached the edges and the heat had radiated up to 200m in front of the flames.
Only 14 houses and two commercial buildings remain in Marysville, and the disaster victim identification process and risk of asbestos in the rubble could keep the town closed for weeks. Senior-Constable Collyer spent days after the fire searching for survivors. His family evacuated early and survived, although his partner's house was destroyed. ''Because you're in a country town you know all these people, and some of the things that .. these people are going to have to go through is just mind blowing.''
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