It's a dangerous undertaking. But for many Fingal families, signing up with the Tasmania Fire Service is a matter of copying your parents: just something you do.

Sophie Loane and Bradley McGill both joined the brigade as juniors at 12 years old and have been volunteering ever since.

"We have a lot of second generation and third generation people coming through," Ms Loane said.

"We both started because our dads were part of it, and I know that's the case for [brigade chief] Richard Gee - his dad was a firefighter, they're three generations with their kids coming through as well."

Ms Loane is a farmer on a property about ten minutes down the road from the township of Fingal. It is not in the direct path of the fire, but "you never know when the wind could change".

"It's peak time with harvest so it's a matter of trying to keep that going while also protecting the community," she said.

Mr McGill grew up in Fingal but now lives and works in Launceston. Like many volunteers he isn't able to participate in every TFS activity, but he is trained and will be there when they need him.

"They might not see me all year, but then I turn up at something like this when they need extra hands," he said.

"You'd find that when there's a big fire like this, most volunteers want to get involved."

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Ms Loane said it was "infuriating" that the fire was allegedly deliberately lit.

A resident of Mangana, outside Fingal, named Robert Peter Matthewson was charged on Saturday with unlawfully lighting a fire.

"It makes me so angry," she said.

"Especially watching what's been happening on the mainland - it's a lot worse, but that could potentially happen here too."

James Burbury, also of Fingal, has been fighting the fire for about a week.

"The first day was extremely scary," he said.

"It was 39 degrees and I don't know what the wind speed was, at least a 50-kilometre nor-westerly. There's no point getting in its road.

"You've just got to watch it, protect assets, and try to stop the spotting. It's fairly scary, but you're trained and you handle it the best possible way.

"It's definitely not over. It's going to go for months. We're going to need inches of rain to put this thing out."

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