From a rudimentary kitchen at the Tyringham fire shed, they were serving meals to 150-200 firefighters each day.

"Day and night," said brigade secretary Leonie Wright, who organised the rosters. "We had a breakfast shift, a lunch shift, a dinner shift and an overnight shift."

The RFS basecamp at the Dorrigo Polocrosse Fields and its commercial kitchen wasn't operational until September 16, ten days after the fire first hit Emergency Warning level.

Before then, firefighters were able to get meals in Dorrigo - from its cafes and from the evacuation centre - but that meant an extra half an hour's drive, so the Tyringham station became the unofficial front-line source of sustenance.

Leonie and her small band of kitchen helpers, who included Carol, Deb, Kathy, Beccy and Alisha, put the word out and soon home-cooked meals were arriving from Dorrigo, Bellingen, Coffs Harbour and even as far away as Woolgoolga.

The Tyringham store lent them a large freezer, local 'lady tradie' Amy Johnson connected a hot water system, and Clarence Valley Council dispatched a few portaloos when the volume of water being used in the kitchen became too much for the sewerage system.

"We had sewage coming up through our toilets," Leonie said. "We were washing up all the time and the sewerage system couldn't handle it."

On the fifth day of the Bees Nest fire crisis, the Tyringham fire station played host to a helicopter-load of visiting dignitaries, including NSW Premier NSW Gladys Berejiklian and her deputy John Barilaro.

They spoke to the firefighters and their team of supporters and announced a $20,000 grant to upgrade the kitchen.

Leonie now wishes she'd piped up immediately and suggested double that amount.

"I'm not sure if that is going to cover it," she said. "We'd like to have a shower put in and a kitchen that's more functional than what it is now.

"Hopefully we'll never have that scale [of operations] again but maybe this whole weather pattern that we're seeing is going to be the new norm.

"So we need to be prepared. We are really on the outer here, so we need to be self-sufficient."

Another part of being prepared that has been occupying Leonie's thoughts of late is putting a plan in place detailing where residents can go if a similar emergency arises again.

When the call to evacuate Dundurrabin went up in the wee hours of September 7, she took her family of four to the Seventh Day Adventist Church hall near the Dorrigo Showground, because as deaconess she had a key.

"I didn't know where else to go," Leonie said. "We don't have any family here. I knew it had mattresses and blankets, showers and toilets, so that's where we headed."

On advice from Tyringham Brigade captain Darren Wykes, firefighter Shakti Mudra organised door-knocking and phone messages advising residents to consider leaving because the fire was very unpredictable and fast moving.

She said many ended up at the fire station.

"We had 50 people camped at the fire shed that first night," she said. "About 30 in their cars, with dogs and other pets."

As the church hall in Dorrigo can sleep 100 people, Leonie would like to see it brought up to the requisite standards and included in a new evacuation plan, to be developed by the community in consultation with council.

"There will be a community meeting and discussion about it," she said. "And when [the plan] is finished, everyone in Dorrigo and surrounding areas will know that is the place they can go to when they need to evacuate."

She's also helping to organise a fundraiser for the Tyringham RFS.

To be held on Sunday October 13 from 10am at the Dundurrabin Community Centre, it will feature music by the Atoms, a huge raffle, tea/coffee/cold drinks, hot foods, cakes and slices.

As well as wanting to supplement the kitchen upgrade grant, they're hoping to raise money for new equipment and training.

"We don't have everything supplied, we still have to fundraise for various pieces of equipment," Leonie said. "Which is totally beyond my realm of thinking, but that's government for you.

"We need more radios, in particular. You're only given one standard radio but we live in a remote place with poor mobile coverage and communication is one of our major problems.

"For the first four days we had no radio communication for our section of the Bees Nest fire. We relied on our mobile phones."

Only Optus coverage was available until Telstra came on the fifth day to install a temporary booster for the communication command bus to use.

"Telstra needs to place a permanent tower here in Tyringham for the safety of our community."

Leonie said the event on Sunday would also give people the opportunity to come together, say thanks to the firies, and act on any thoughts they may have had about joining the brigade.

Tyringham and Dundurrabin have a combined population of about 300 but only eight active firefighters and seven support people, all working long hours during the Bees Nest fire.

"We have an ageing brigade, " Leonie said. "We need the youth to step up and be part of the RFS."