When Geoff Keaton and his volunteer firefighting friend Andrew O'Dwyer became fathers within two days of each other in May 2018, life couldn't have been more promising.
On Thursday night, that promise was destroyed near Buxton, south of Sydney, when the two were killed trying to contain the Green Wattle Creek blaze, becoming the first volunteer firefighters to die in the fires that have devastated nearly 4 million hectares of NSW since July.
On Friday morning, Australians were in mourning for Mr O'Dwyer, 36, who ran his own photography company, and Mr Keaton, 32, whose father John, a fellow firefighter was out fighting the Gospers Mountain fire in the Blue Mountains.
Flags flew at half-mast across NSW, including on Sydney's Harbour Bridge, in honour of the fathers whose deaths have taken the fire toll to eight since November.
The helmets of Geoffrey Keaton and Andrew O’Dwyer outside the Horsley Park RFS brigade.Credit:Renee Nowytarger
Their firefighting fraternity at Horsley Park gathered for a solemn memorial at the station, laying their lost friends' firefighting helmets besides floral tributes.
Many exhausted volunteers were in tears as locals joined the makeshift memorial service.
The fatal accident occurred at the end of an exhausting day when it seems 40 buildings - 20 of them homes - were lost in Buxton, Balmoral, Bargo and surrounding areas as the Green Wattle Creek blaze tore through the Wollondilly shire.
RFS colleagues mourn the deaths at the makeshift memorial at Horsley Park.Credit:Renee Nowytarger
After a full day of firefighting in south-western Sydney, the friends, with decades of firefighting experience between them, were travelling as driver and passenger in a truck convoy near the town of Buxton when a tree fell on their tanker, which rolled off the road.
Both were killed at the scene. Their three fellow firefighters in the tanker escaped the wreck and were taken to Liverpool Hospital.
Mr O'Dwyer grew up in nearby Cecil Hills and became a volunteer firefighter not long after he left Cecil Hills High School in 1999.
Andrew O'Dwyer and Geoffrey Keaton, both pictured with their young children, died on Thursday night fighting fires at Buxton.
A father-of-three, he worked for many years in logistics for Big W in Wetherill Park, before marrying his partner, Melissa, in 2013 and buying a house in south-western Sydney. They have two boys and a daughter Charlotte, born in May 2018. Friends described him as a "kind, generous and thoughtful gentleman".
Mr Keaton and his partner, Jess, have a son, Harvey, born within days of the O'Dwyers' daughter, and a welcome member of the Horsley Park Volunteer firefighting extended family, where Keaton was a popular deputy fire captain.
Both Harvey and Charlotte are 19 months old, said NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons, who along with the RFS chaplain spent a large part of the early hours of Friday morning consoling the wives of the dead firefighters.
"They are at a loss," Mr Fitzsimmons said of the pair's families. "Christmas is just five days away.
RFS colleagues mourn the deaths at the makeshift memorial at Horsley Park.Credit:Renee Nowytarger
"They're in extraordinary shock and natural despair at the enormity of what's confronting them and to try and comprehend the tragedy," he said.
Mr Premier Gladys Berejiklian also attended the service saying it "was an honour to meet the men and women in the 'extended family' that is the Horsley Park RFS brigade" and gave them her deepest sympathies over the deaths of their colleagues.
She is also expected to meet the families of Mr Keaton and Mr O'Dwyer. A Go Fund Me campaign has been set up to help them.
She said of the firefighters: "I don't think you can think of a worse set of circumstances to see two young fathers lose their lives in this way."
NSW Emergency Services Minister David Elliott called it a "a black armband day".
Helen Pitt is a journalist at the The Sydney Morning Herald.