The 59-year-old former plasterer, of Mangana, was living on his own at Dunalley when the bushfires raged through the small town on the threshold of the Forestier Peninsula in 2013.

Across the Forestier and Tasman peninsulas, a total of 193 dwellings were lost.

One of those was Mr Wessing's.

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"I lost everything," he said. "It was gut-wrenching."

Now, in a cruel twist of fate, Mr Wessing has once more come face-to-face with bushfire, as blazes in the Fingal Valley have left him fearing that he could lose everything all over again.

The Dunalley fires, which had their origin at Forcett, lit up the eucalyptus trees along the Arthur Highway, which Mr Wessing said was what led to the destruction of his old home.

He didn't discover what had happened until he and others affected by the disaster were escorted by police from the Nubeena Oval, where they had been sheltering. Mr Wessing briefly broke away from the convoy to survey the wreckage of his property.

"Everything had melted, just running down the road and the drive," he said. "It didn't even look like a house anymore."

"It was just white like Chernobyl or something.

"I had my trucks, all my work gear, cars, caravans, house, clothes.

"I walked out of there with a pair of thongs, a t-shirt and a pair of shorts."

About the time the fires broke out, Mr Wessing had been looking into getting home and contents insurance. But the inferno outpaced him.

The total value of all his destroyed property approached $200,000.

The most irreplaceable items Mr Wessing lost were photos of his late son.

"That was devastating for me because I ... have not got any photos or memorabilia of that time," he said.

"My son, he passed away in '84. He was seven weeks old.

"It was very, very hard at the time when I lost those things because I had nothing left. No photos, the little band that goes around his wrist from the hospital. Things like that I kept. Things it was really lovely to have."

After that day when his life was irrevocably changed, Mr Wessing returned to work in the hope of eventually scraping together enough money to buy a new home.

In the meantime, he rented in Hobart and Molesworth.

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His work colleagues bought him plastering tools to replace those he'd lost.

The one asset that Mr Wessing did have insured at the time of the Dunalley catastrophe was his caravan, the money from which he put towards buying a new place.

But while on the tools one day, disaster struck.

Mr Wessing was lifting a piece of sheet metal when he injured his back. He hasn't worked since.

"My back kills me and I'm on a lot of tablets," he said.

"I've had an operation ... and it's really not worked at all. It's a bit unlucky."

Mr Wessing now uses a cane to get around and receives a disability pension.

Against the odds, he was able to accumulate the necessary funds to purchase a property at Mangana, about two years after he'd been left with no choice but to leave Dunalley.

"I am a bush person," Mr Wessing said. "I love animals, I love the scenery that comes with it and I love the people."

On December 30, horrible memories of Dunalley came flooding back to Mr Wessing, when fire hit Mangana.

It's been alleged that the blaze was deliberately lit. One home has already been lost.

"It's frightening, really," Mr Wessing said. "Mentally it drains you because you can't sleep, you're worried about all this happening all over again."

"I could not stay here and defend [my home], even if I wanted to, because of my health issues.

"You're thinking, 'I just can't go through it again, I just can't do all this again'. You know?"

At the time of print, there were nine fires burning in the Fingal Valley.

Mr Wessing was given hope when he encountered a firey after the blaze began at Mangana.

"He mentioned about Dunalley, that he'd been in and fought the Dunalley bushfires," Mr Wessing said.

"And I said I was in it. And he said, 'Oh, my God'.

"He said, 'Mate, I'll tell you what we'll do - we'll fight as hard as we can to try to keep your property. We'll not let this one burn on you, cobber', he went.

"And that was quite nice of him. It was lovely. It perked me up a little bit."