Gary and his wife, Margaret call Berowra Heights home, but for one week a caravan at Taree Showground is home as they help with bushfire disaster recovery work. They are experienced disaster relief volunteers having assisted Samaritan's Purse to staff deployments to Tathra, Logan, Townsville and Bunyip in recent years.

Gary and his wife have been clocking around 200 kilometres a day to visit properties impacted by bushfire, and he says they get to about four properties a day.

"We go out and assess the work to be done, prepare work orders and pass them on to the team of volunteers who go out and physically do the work," Gary said.

"There is a lot of travelling to get out and inspect properties because many people live in remote locations.

"The intensity of the fire and damage caused is considerable compared to what I have seen on other deployments. The damage here is a lot more extensive, and a lot more remote."

Compassionate conversations with men and women who are trying to come to terms with the disaster is another aspect of Gary's service as a volunteer.

"A lot of people are traumatised because they live in remote locations," Gary said.

"To get away from the fire their evacuation path was not clear, or it was between trees. Do I stay and fight the fire for my house, bearing in mind that I've got five kilometres of forest that I've got to get through to get out, and that's the only way out ... that's a common thing I hear."

Samaritan's Purse reports its volunteers have completed 20 jobs since the arrival of the disaster relief truck in Taree on November 23, and its ranks of volunteers number 48 men and women from multiple church communities in the area. The work has included work such as cleaning ash and soot from houses, sifting through valuables, removing fallen trees and other debris and clearing out damaged homes.

The disaster relief truck is parked at OneLife Church in Muldoon Street and will be set-up until December 20. If community demand for its resources is strong, and no other natural disasters occur in Australia, the truck may remain on site during January.

Samaritan's Purse is also gifting Fire Recovery Kits to people to help them to begin the process of searching their properties for possessions, and to clear areas of materials destroyed or damaged by fire.

The kits contains a wrecking bar, concrete shovel, mouth shovel, landscape rake, combination pliers, steel claw hammer, mattock with cutter, disposable overalls, round plastic bin, safety spectacles, face masks, leather gloves, and rubber gloves. Each kit is worth more than $300 and is funded by public donations to Samaritan's Purse.

To learn more or to help fund Fire Recovery Kits or Samaritan's Purse Disaster Relief work visit its website samaritanspurse.org.au/helping-fire-affected-families/

To access the support of the Samaritan's Purse Disaster Relief Truck visit OneLife Church in Muldoon Street, Taree.

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