Heroic locals band together to save homes in fire ravaged town

A 63-year-old fire truck and a carton of eggs has helped save eight homes in the path of the Longwood bushfire ravaging Victoria's north-east.

A group of neighbours and workmates banded together to save homes in the small town of Ruffy.

The village in Victoria's north-east was one of the first to be hit by the Longwood bushfire on Thursday.

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Today, local CFA Captain George Noye had his first chance to count the losses, which includes 30 homes.

"The primary school, the old church, the engineering workshop..." he said

"So there's a lot of heartache there. The Ruffy rec ground, the pavilion just got obliterated."

That list would have been much longer if not for the efforts of local heroes.

From their home and farrier business, Kim and Dan Leach cobbled together a group of 12 neighbours and workers to stay and fight.

They were working alongside Chris Hewlett and Jack Charnock.

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"We didn't have any gear, we didn't have respirators, we didn't have googles, we had no gear and we're just wet towels, we just wore like jeans, we just wet ourselves down," Chris said.

"We managed to save eight homes and little farms," Kim said.

Born and raised in Ruffy, Kim and neighbour Scott Rowan had never seen anything like it.

"I came down and caught up with Dan to try to set some sort of plan if we could but it's pretty hard to plan when it comes so quick," Scott said.

A neighbour's old 1963 Austin added to their fleet of four trucks.

But out on the fireground, the 63-year-old truck encountered radiator problems.

A carton of eggs sorted that out.

"It's a bush hack or something, if you got a hole in your radiator get the egg whites," Chris said.

Testimonials online appear to suggest that the egg whites cook and form a solid mass that provides a temporary fix to a radiator leak.