Tathra residents worst hit by a bushfire which ravaged their NSW south coast town have finally laid eyes on their scorched homes 48 hours after they were razed.
Displaced residents boarded buses mid-morning on Tuesday to tour their fire-ravaged town, which remains closed to the public after Sunday's blaze tore through incinerating nearly 100 properties.
Residents who lost their homes were given priority but weren't allowed to exit the buses, so had to view the destruction through their tears and glass windows.
Authorities remain concerned about downed power lines, asbestos and a still active fire front.
Many residents cried and embraced as they returned to the evacuation centre in Bega on Tuesday afternoon.
Ray Coates, who lives in a retirement village, considers himself lucky after finding his unit still standing.
"It's heart-wrenching," Mr Coates told reporters at the evacuation centre.
"With floods, you've still got a house, but with fires you've got nothing."
The retiree said people broke down as they passed their burned-out homes.
The hardest part was seeing one side of the street unaffected while the other was destroyed.
"One (woman) saw her house and she just yelled out to people 'Can you see my cat?'" he said.
Dom Tetley, whose unit was destroyed by fire, initially didn't want to see the destruction but his wife convinced him to board the bus to Tathra.
"I'm glad I went," he told AAP.
"It made me realise how lucky anyone in Tathra is if their house is still standing."
The randomness of the destruction, where one house was lost while a neighbouring property was left unscathed, made it harder for people to comprehend, Mr Tetley said on Tuesday.
Embers the size of his hand were igniting gardens as he and his wife fled the township on Sunday.
"We'll be alright. She's worried about the photos she had stashed away that I haven't had a chance to scan, and things like that. But you can't change yesterday."
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