NINA Lunde and Rowan Francis are too aware of how close death came to their door on Black Saturday to regard the near-destruction of their farm as a cruel fate.

The firestorm that engulfed the pair's Kinglake Central berry farm may have wreaked a terrible toll on their livelihood on February 7 last year.

But their awareness of surviving in a community so ravaged by death has overshadowed each step they have taken to rebuild their business.

That is the lasting impression from sitting at their kitchen table hearing what they saw and felt as they fought to save their house.

The inferno that turned Kinglake into a living hell that night ravaged every single blueberry, blackberry and raspberry plant on which their livelihood depended and obliterated their machinery shed and coolstore.

They had no way of knowing whether any of the plants would survive and what management practices to adopt if some did.

The pair remember vividly the day it became evident some had survived - the day a small green shoot appeared at the base of a blueberry plant.

About half of the plants lived, but the road back to full production is long and hard, and there is no expert in the world who can tell Rowan and Nina how to manage their plants' recovery after a fire of such proportions.

"We have just been trying to keep our heads above water," Rowan said.

"But knowing we were going to have some tough times, we knew we had to be very close as a family. It's kind of like we were celebrating the fact we were still alive."