"At the height of the fire, you couldn't see anything. You couldn't see the bullbar on the end of the ute."
Mallala farmer John Lush hunkered down to save his home from Wednesday's bushfire raging north of Adelaide.
"We tried to put it out and 10 seconds later behind you it's alight again. You just couldn't put it out. It was too intense," he told ABC radio on Thursday.
Mr Lush managed to save his home - and life - but only by the skin of his teeth.
"I was out in the paddock and trying to put it out and got a call on the radio to get out," he said.
"The fire had come right around behind me and I only got out by the skin of my teeth."
Mr Lush waited out the fire on a gravel area near his house and watched the flames climb to more than 25 metres.
"We've got a big machinery shed ... the gutters of that are 25 feet off the top of the ground and the flames were coming off the top of that shed," he said.
"It was just horrific."
He lost about 2800 hectares of wheat, farm machinery and his son's nearby home.
"He's got my clothes on his back because he's got none of his own," Mr Lush said.
Two people were killed in the blaze and 13 people are in hospital, with five of those in a serious or critical condition.
At least 16 homes were destroyed along with outbuildings, vehicles and farm machinery.
A watch and act message remains in force with the CFS warning the blaze is still a going fire.
The blaze destroyed 85,000ha of grass, cropping land and scrub and still has the potential to break out of its existing perimeter.
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