Dubbo firefighters Stephen Carlin and Scott Drady rescue 18 in Eugowra floods

Part of 280 Fire and Rescue station's on-call crew, captain Stephen Carlin, 64, and deputy captain Scott Drady, 51, were telephoned on Monday morning with urgent calls for help and expertise.

Between them, the duo had the most experience with regional floods, hazmats and boats. Mr Carlin had already helped with rescues in Lismore and Woodburn earlier this year.

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The firefighters grabbed whatever flood gear they could fit in a small chopper and were flown into inundated Eugowra, home to almost 800 people.

The flash flood happened so quickly, residents retreated to their roofs, bashing their way out to the top.

"We didn't get in until about 2pm... it was devastating. People were still getting winged off roofs and all that when we were there," Mr Drady said.

"The water was running so fast we couldn't even walk in with the boat to be able to get them out. It would've taken off, it was so powerful."

"It was like a dam release. It was dangerous, for us even," Mr Carlin said. "90 per cent of the people were not going back to those homes... it got nearly every building."

He called it an 'inland tsunami'.

One house was washed 500 metres away from where it had been built. Farmers had lost their crops, machines, sheds and stock. Sheep were found slammed against fences after drowning in the flood.

"The whole community has been devastated," Mr Carlin said.

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The two firefighters helped police rescue and state emergency services (SES) by searching different properties for stranded people. They didn't know how many people were missing they needed help to go from house to house and check.

"We took two radios with us and they tasked us on the radio channel, to go around and search through houses and buildings we could get into, that was the priority," Mr Carlin said.

"Every house we went searching, it was like we had been put in a whirlpool, every room."

Together, with the Rescue 20 team from Hurstville and a Eugowra local, Julie, the firefighters were able to find more than a dozen residents who were taken to higher land at Eugowra's showground.

One woman was trapped standing on a bathtub so she wouldn't be washed away. While she could hear voices, rescuers couldn't reach her easily. She continuously called triple zero asking them to send someone to get her out. Eventually, the firefighters were able to rescue her.

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The town's Telstra phone network was down and communication was a challenge.

"I had Optus on my phone, Google maps was working, and Julie was taking us out to areas where roads were just washed away and you couldn't go any further," Mr Carlin said.

The 56-year-old was born and bred in Eugowra knew where families lived and helped rescuers reach them. Julie had also made a list of missing people on Facebook and tried to locate them.

"She needs a badge put on her chest," Mr Carlin said. "She came with us past midnight and she was still going at 5 o'clock in the morning. We got an hour's sleep, if that, she was still awake, still going strong."

Mr Carlin and Mr Drady had been on their feet for 30 hours straight.

However, the pair shied away from recognition for their efforts. Knowing they had a warm bed and a house to go back to when people in the town had lost everything except the clothes on their back was motivation enough.

"We're not heroes. If you were in that position where you've lost everything, what would you want people to do for you?," Mr Carlin said.

"If it happened to me, I wish someone would come for me. That's how I see it."

Neither of them are permanent firefighters, Mr Carlin is a retired fire safety professional while Mr Drady runs The Auctioneer café and works at the Department of Planning and Environment.

After the flooding, Mr Drady's café has been functioning as a drop off point for supplies to be sent to the affected town.

"We've heard from Eugowra that they need things like shovels, rakes, squeegee mops, gum boots, and gloves now and they've got plenty of clothing. We'll get it there as quick as we can," he said.

Currently, there are hoards of people doing clean up at Eugowra, they have come from nearby towns like Orange and Cowra.

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