The smell of smoke and Lost River is enveloped in an eerie haze. Newcomer to the town, Lill, is anxious. Her husband Perry is at work and she is out alone on their 25-hectare once weekender. She doesn’t know how far away the fire is and doesn’t want to look a fool by calling for help. Finally a neighbour visits Lill’s house and re-assures her that the fire is 15km away and has been brought under control.

But that night, Lill can’t sleep. She gets up and follows the glow of the distant fire. Eventually finding it beside the road north of town, she watches the amazing firies in action. Lill realises that belonging and surviving in this community means belonging to the RFS.

The community of Lost River needs volunteers, the small town heroes without whom so many country towns would wither and die.

There’s the captain, “Backa” Burke, everybody’s mate. There’s Joey, Mr Responsibility, with a serious demeanour that belies his youth. There’s Joey’s gorgeous girlfriend Fifi, a member of the notorious Sharp family, a family who knows no fear. There’s the equipment officer, silent Eris with the angelic singing voice. There’s lads and lasses and blokes in their 50s.

Then Old Peg Beecher smashes her car and needs a lift to her CWA meeting, and the only one who can do it is Lill. Lill expected that being part of the community would be hard work, but she didn’t know you had to be a saint to even make a start!

Meanwhile, the fire that they thought was put out is still smouldering, and Lill’s worst nightmare comes true.

Even one bad fire can kill-but this time they’ll be fighting on two fronts.

The Fireflies continue their work to fight against the raging fire.

Lost River is in recovery from a devastating fire that nearly took the lives of some of their best firefighters and local farmers.

Perry struggles to come to terms with the loss of his home, while Lill and his daughter Taz rival for his attention.

Meanwhile tension mounts between Joey and Fifi over Fifi’s actions concerning their baby.

Luisa learns that her secret love affair with the local cop Mike, is no longer a secret. It all comes to a head when Rebekah Sharp turns up and announces that Luisa’s husband Eris was inside a fire truck engulfed by flames. Suddenly Luisa realises that a lot more people know about her affair than she thought. She rushes to be with Eris who is feeling lost and alone.

Backa is trying to deliver on his promise to be “there” for his wife Svettie, but his fire crew has been traumatised and there’s counselling to be done.

Gossip is spreading like wildfire through town about the fire brigade officer Eris Parsons shooting his dog. Eris and his wife Luisa aren’t around to set the record straight, they’ve gone into hiding. Seems like everyone in Lost River has something they’re trying to escape from.

Svettie is trying not to drown in her problems. Her husband’s uncle Jeff is holding the purse strings of her family’s finances and she’s tired of husband Backa not standing up for her. She runs away to a seaside hotel for a night of something she desperately needs; pampering.

While she’s away Backa must juggle his family and work life with the captaincy of the Lost River Rural Fire Brigade and it’s no easy task.

Backa’s younger brother Joey has returned to Lost River for Fifi and their unborn baby. But things aren’t the same anymore and the couple can’t seem to connect. Joey retreats to a caravan in order to figure his life out.

Meanwhile children’s book illustrator Lill is finding it increasingly difficult to reconcile work with the commitments that come with being part of the Lost River community and when her business partner KC arrives from Sydney, Lill realises she can’t escape. But there are other distractions in the form of firefighting and after accompanying Backa to the scene of a potentially dangerous fire Lill is hooked.

One of the realities of living in the bush is making the best out of a bad situation, which Lill and Perry are learning to do fast. Their shed has been overrun with rats, Perry is working on rebuilding their dream house after it was destroyed by fire and Lill struggles to meet an urgent work deadline in the surrounding chaos. It seems the world is conspiring against her. A regular commitment to drive Peg Beecher on a couple of errands turns into a lengthy nightmare when Peg falls sick and needs to get to a hospital. Backa is down at the station to receive the brigade's new fire truck. He is worried about crew numbers and pushes fire control officer Bryce to do a Basic Firefighting Course so Lill and the other recruits are trained up before the bush fire danger period really hits. Uncle Jeff has seized control of Backa and Svettie's finances and insists that Svettie undergo a weekly inquisition on the books. She comes up with a plan to make money so she can get her family out of Jeff's clutches. For this she needs the help of friends Sharpie and Rebekah, but it's not without risk. Fifi attempts a reconciliation with Joey but he's still confused by her previous behaviour and turns her away. Alone in her room, Fifi contemplates life as a single mother and how it will affect her future.

Perry’s moved into the mudbrick house and Lill is happy about that-or is she? During a drunken phone call with Perry’s ex-wife, Lill realises her relationship may really be over. Then the unravelling starts as her happiness turns and reality starts closing in. Can she live without Perry?

It’s another hot day and a fire has started in the Tuza State forest. Fifi arrives at Firecom, to the chaos of fires already out of control. Conditions aren’t good-it’s expected to reach 41 degrees and the winds are fierce. All the brigades are on standby as Fire Control Officer Bryce Austin works out the strategies needed to overcome the fires before they link up and the wind pushes them towards Fox Cove. Fifi learns that Bryce will do everything he can to save Fox Cove, including putting his own house at risk.

There’s smoke in Lost River but no fire, yet. Backa is at the fire station organising crews. He’s trying to be Captain in every way possible. But there’s pressure coming in from everywhere. He can’t help wondering why local policeman Mike Jones is sniffing around his wife. And there’s a southwesterly change expected which means the fires will close in around Lost River.

Meanwhile Mike is closing in on Svettie and Sharpie’s dope crop. He’s torn between being the cop and living in a small country town where he has become familiar with the residents. It’s a fine line and Mike is still an outsider. But a secret is out about Mike and his world is about to close in on him too.

Lost River’s very existence is threatened in this gripping episode of Fireflies. Fearfully, Backa watches the fire trucks roll in to Lost River. Backa believes that it is less than 24 hours before the fires reach the village, and he expects they’ll come from the west as well as the predicted front to the east.

Not only is the Lost River brigade fractured, but its members also insist on sniping in front of Divisional Commander Donna Bruce. Backa needs Donna to trust his judgement-they have to get out to the fires instead of waiting for more intelligence from Firecom.

Svettie makes an unexpected visit to the station and learns that the fire may reach Deep Creek by nightfall. She alerts Sharpie, who enlists the help of his son Hank, to help harvest their Deep Creek plantation before the fire arrives.

Meanwhile, Lill asks Perry for a truce until the fire has passed, but Perry refuses, accusing her of demanding his support while she destroys their marriage. He insists she has to learn to act on her own.

Backa convinces Donna that the only way he can unite his brigade is to get them out to the fire ground. However, when they confront the raging fire, the flames have spread too far and Backa is forced to fall back to Deep Creek to backburn.

Svettie, cut off from all communication, is in the middle of the area he intends to burn. Kieran, knowing where his father, brother and Svettie are, convinces Lill that they must warn them before they get trapped. When Lill becomes a hero on the fire ground, she realises maybe she’ll be able to survive on her own after all.

The fire front is racing into Lost River, it’s much bigger than they thought and the water pressure has failed.

The trucks are going to have to relay back and forth to the dam at Sharpie’s to refill, and when they discover that Suzie’s place is burning inside the roof, Backa has to make a difficult call. No one said fighting fires on your own doorstep was easy.

Meanwhile, Lill’s left Perry with a box and a question: “here’s somewhere to put a few precious things, just in case”, so what should he save?

Joey’s thrown into the thick of things at the Sharps, with Hank being his usual infuriating self and Sharpie way too relaxed to be much good.

Svettie knows exactly what to save-but what should she do first when she can’t leave the shop? It’s going to be a long day.

In the final hour of Fireflies, days have passed since the fires. Everyone is trying to return to normal and clean up the damage, but it’s not going to be easy.

Lill tries her hand at spinning. She has a few CWA ladies over for a spinning session-nothing more meditative or calming, until Perry arrives and shocks her with the news that he’s changed his mind.

After many arguments and tension, he has finally decided that he does want to have a baby with her. Now she really has something to meditate on while she spins her wool!

Fifi and Joey are begrudgingly living with Uncle Jeff, but they’re hoping it’s only temporary. It’s got to be temporary. Just has to be. But Joey knows that with the fires gone and their caravan burnt out, Fifi’s going to have to reconcile with her family. It’s eating her up inside, and Uncle Jeff’s icy deal making isn’t helping.

Sharpie’s just getting by. His house was saved, but now he’s got a son on the critical list in hospital, another son who wants to marry his 15-year-old girlfriend and a wife and daughter estranged from each other. Sharpie starts wondering where he went wrong.

As for Backa, he just wants to give up the captaincy as he always promised Svettie and get on with his life. The only hitch is that no new captain is coming forward. He then discovers four cases of illegal cash crop in the back shed and at last the truth comes out, layer on layer of it-Svettie’s debts, Svettie’s lies, their real financial situation, the fish-farming investments. It’d be funny if it weren’t so shocking. And Constable Mike Jones is sniffing around, dropping hints. Backa’s convinced Mike knows about the drugs.

But it’s a funny old world, as Lill realises she’s torn between the man she loves who’s promising her everything she ever wanted-and a married man who isn’t promising her anything. Maybe the secret is to see things clearly and stop fooling herself. Maybe the secret is to open her eyes and wait for the smoke to clear.