Shirley arrives at the Club on Sunday to find it empty. Cookie complains to her about the lack of customers. Frank is in Burrigan rehearsing the Desert Song. Cookie asks after Esme -- has she returned from Mudgee yet? Frank arrives and tells SHirley that he's had to complain about not getting made up for the play (after all, how can he play Raph's father without makeup?). Shirley and Frank order their lunch. Cookie tells Shirley she's looking like a bit like a greyhound but Frank warns her to watch her weight. She tells him he's the one with the weight problem these days. Vicky is dealing with a cat in her surgery as Joanna comes in. Her horse Sonny t is sick and her dad has said they're going to have to shoot him because he's got strangles (or so her dad thinks). Joanna begs Vicky to come look at him and Vicky caves in -- Joanna promises to do whatever she has to to pay the vet bills herself, even though she's just a child. When Vicky learns that Joanna's parents are taking her to Sydney in the morning, she makes time right away to go look at him. Capt. Ackerley returns to the Jones farm armed with everything he'll need to start the controlled burn. As always, he provides a lecture on bush fires at the same time. He wants her to prepare the house as if there were a real fire (filling the tub with water, etc.) -- just as a safety precaution, he says -- and she becomes a little concerned. Simon, Frank, and Shirley have lunch together in the Club and discuss Terence's wine efforts. Cookie blames the increase in breathalysing as the reason why no one comes to the club anymore. Shirley suggests that perhaps if they added a few amenities, they might bring in more customers. She decides to go play the pokies while the "boys" debate the issue. Frank suggests Cookie use the proceeds from the pokie machines to pay for the improvements but Shirley interrupts them by winning the jackpot ($100). Cookie doesn't think there's enough money to pay the jackpot, let alone anything else, so Shirl suggests she take a bottle of champagne instead. Capt. Ackerley rushes into the Jones house and urges Molly to call out the fire brigade -- his nice little "controlled burn" has gotten away from him and is out of control.

The fire brigade arrives at the farm and Molly directs them to the far paddock. Capt. Ackerley dresses down the brigade for being sloppy and slow. There is no fire -- he just wanted to test the readiness of the brigade. They aren't so pleased, especially those one who'd been drinking heavily the night before and are hungover. He sends them away and Molly takes Capt. Ackerley to task for scaring her for no good reason. Muldoon arrives at the Club wanting to know why Cookie needs a float. Cookie explains that Shirley's win wiped them out and there havsn't been enough business to make it up. Muldoon turns around and congratulates Shirley, who is sitting with Frank enjoying a bottle of champagne. He then says he's going to suggest that club fees be increased so that the Club can become a more exclusive establishment, to attract visitors from Burrigan as well as the tourist trade. Shirley bristles at his obvious intention to exclude most of the residents of Wandin Valley and Frank has to drag her out the club with her swearing and cursing Muldoon the entire way. Vicky talks to Joanna's father -- Sonny just has a viral infection that she can treat. She promises to keep him away from the other horses until he's better but Mr. Perrin is obviously more disposed toward the idea of shooting the horse instead. Vicky has to continually assure him that HE won't be charged for the treatment, that it is between Joanna and her. Simon doesn't quite understand why Vicky is so vehement until he finally realizes that Vicky was in Joanna's position when she was a girl -- her father wouldn't fix her horse unless she paid for it (Shirley gave her money on the sly and never forgave Jack for forcing it). Simon and Vicky end up discussing the pros and cons of ever getting married in the first place. At the Jones farm, the vounteer brigade have to face another dressing down from Capt. Ackerley but they tell him to get stuffed. Brendan isn't impressed with having been called home for a false alarm -- he's had to leave Sue Hammond in charge and she isn't pleased at losing her afternoon off. He's worried she'll blow the lid on the whole Maggie-AWOL-in-Las-Vegas thing but Molly believes its his fault because he insisted that Maggie go there in the first place.

Terence stops by the Club and remarks on the lack of business there. Cookie warns him about the risks of getting involved with Pam Foley but Terence tells him they're just friends. The fire brigade stops in the Club for a drink and complain to Muldoon about Capt. Ackerley. Pam joins Terence at his table -- he goes to get her a drink just as one of the fire volunteers, Kevin Thomas, collapses. At the hospital, Terence and Sue Hammond try too determine what's wrong with him and decide to admit him for observations. Frank and Shirley drop by Vicky and Simon's for a little drink and Shirley has to put up with a lecture from Frank about how fattening alcohol is. They end up having to explain to Simon and Vicky about what happened with Muldoon. Frank gets "paged" by Bev at the flat about there being a fire at the Jones' -- Frank informs her she's 4 hours late with that news. Eddy, another of the fire volunteers complains to Sue while visiting Kevin and they are shocked when the sick fireman begins spewing up blood. At the farm, Brendan and Molly continue to argue over Brendan returning to the hospital and the "silly" fire scare. He storms off. Terence tries to diagnose what is wrong with Kevin -- he has pain in legs and abdomen, is sweating heavily, and was complaining of double vision at the Club. They thought originally that it was just an aggravated hangover but Terence suddenly has a brainstorm. They quickly inspect his legs and find a snake bite.

They are able to determine, with the help of a new venom detection kit, that Kevin was bitten by a brown snake so they are able to treat him properly. Capt. Ackerley tries to come visit Kevin but the friend won't let him. Brendan tells them to quiet down and then gets after Sue for not handling them -- she in turn speaks her mind to him about his leaving the hospital earlier on. Terence returns to the Club to find Pam still there; she's had Cookie hold their dinner. The next morning, Vicky brings Joanna to visit Sonny before she leaves for Sydney. Frank and Shirley bicker over her hangover (or simple headache as Shirley would describe it). Capt. Ackerley stops by to talk to Frank to ask him to give a talk to the fire brigade volunteers about safety. Frank wants him to discuss a suitable night with the men but Capt. Ackerley insists they will come whenever necessary since they are on call. Pam drops by to visit with Molly. Brendan is outside checking the controlled burn (he reports it's completely dead now). Molly invites Pam to lunch. Molly tries to talk to Brendan about whatever is going on between Pam and Terence but Brendan is very short tempered. Back at Sonny's "hospital room", Sonny is very nervous and spooked. The fire brigade volunteers are waiting for Capt. Ackerley, who is late. He's been to visit Kevin but Eddy has already told the men that. He asks the men to volunteer to help the Burrigan volunteers -- Burrigan is an "Extreme Fire Danger" area but Wandin Valley is OK for now. He's already volunteered himself. They all agree wholeheartedly. He also mentions that their future meetings will be held in the Club. The men are pleasantly pleased by his change of attitude. Simon arrives at the clinic to find Shirley eating a salad. He remarks to her that she looks smaller and she admits she's been losing weight for weeks. Shirley tells him she thinks the Club members should have a say in how the Club is run. Sue talks to Kevin. She remarks that the wind has changed and offers to shut the window. He wants it left open and breathes deply -- something is wrong. At the fire station, Capt. Ackerley manually sets off the fire alarm.

The alarm can be heard all over the town. Shirley learns from Frank that the change of winds has blown the fires from Burrigan to Wandin Valley. The Club has been set up as an emergency relief centre. Muldoon tries to force Cookie to stay to mind things but he wants to go help out his sister's home (which would be one of the first homes in danger). Bob promises to look after Coralie's place. Sue worries about her kids -- they should be walking home from school soon. Brendan tells her to go pick them up herself. Terence wants all the staff on call, including Maggie and Brendan is in trouble. The fire brigade volunteers get their gear together and leave the station. Frank has blocked the road and they are evaacuating the farms in the area...there is a lot of smoke already in the air. The firemen struggle to douse several fires at one farm -- Capt. Ackerley forces the pump truck driver to drive through a new gate there rather than wait for Bob to open it up. Vicky stops by the Club to check in with her mother -- she's been going around to the hobby farms, letting the stock out so they'll have a chance. She says the Yarravale road is closed. She's on her way to the Crossroads. Muldoon rushes in muttering that "It's looking very bad, extremely bad." The wind is pushing the fire up the ranges to Mt. Newsome. Vicky is worried about the Perrin farm which is in the way of the fire. Cookie puts Muldoon to work with the meat slicer. Mrs. Clayton comes in looking for her husband Bill who was admitted. A man comes in with a busted hand. He mentions that a female vet was heading right into the guts of the fire and Simon is concerned. VIcky has gone to the Perrin faarm to release Sonny. The smoke is very thick and her ute engine keeps cutting out.

The firemen struggle to douse the fires that are raging all over the Valley. Frank finds Capt. Ackerley and tells him that the Yarravale Road is cut in 3 places and there are 1500 hectares of state forest ready to explode. Ackerley doesn't want to expend manpower for that but Frank insists -- the Jones farm, the Clayton place, and the Crowley dairy are just on the other side of that forest. Ackerley agrees to leave 8 men where they are and take the rest to the south end of the forest. Molly talks to her chooks, explaining why she's penned them all inside (i.e. to keep them from running around outside). Pam rushes in to use Molly's phone -- Frank won't let her through the road block. Molly's phone is dead too. Pam wants Molly to come with her but Molly decides to stay with the farm. The Club is busy with victims of the fires. Muldoon is behaving like a human -- he even agrees that Shirley should go look for Vicky. Esme rushes in and asks Muldoon why everyone is in the Club instead of fighting the fires (she's just returned from Mudgee and doesn't know the situation). She insists on playing nurse, not caterer, for the victims of the fire. Vicky's ute finally packs it in and she can't get it restarted. Frank, now dressed in firefighting gear, tells Ackerley that Burrigan has their fires under control and will be sending reinforcements. Ackerley sends Bob to warn the farmers soon to be affected about the danger they're in. Ackerley begins to collapse from the strain but keeps working anyway. The hospital struggles to deal with the influx of victims and Brendan is forced to tell Terence about Maggie being in Las Vegas. Pam rushes into the hospital and tries to drag Terence away to help her reach her son Timmy. She tells him he has a responsibility to her and when he insists he has a responsibility to everyone, not just her, she flips out and leaves the hospital to look for Timmy.

Pam arrives at the Club to try to get Cookie to help her find her son. He gives her a note from one of the fire crews that assures her that Timmy is safe at one of the base camps. Esme tries to offer her comfort. Cookie brings Pam a drink and Esme calls him Vernon -- he takes that to mean that he's been forgiven (since she's been calling him "Mr. Locke" for ages). He's over the moon. Brendan tries to find out what's up with Molly and Chloe but there is no word. Shirley arrives at the hospital worried about what's happened to Vicky -- the farms around the Perrin place were evacuated a half hour ago and she still hasn't turned up. This just makes Simon worried as well and he rushes off to try to find her. Shirley needs to keep busy and Terence puts her to work in room 4. Molly runs through her fire safety checklist (windows closed, cracks covered, etc.) to make sure she's covered all bases. Chloe stands up for the first time. Simon drives along the route Vicky would have taken, honking his horn and yelling her name. He finds her in her broken down ute and takes her away in his car. Bob arrives at the Jones' farm to tell her that the wind is slacking off a bit. He thinks she should leave with him but she insists on staying. She's worried about Doris, though. The back burn of their top paddock that Capt. Ackerley did the day before might be their saving grace but Bob says they'll try not to let it get that far.

Simon brings Vicky to the hospital, much to Shirley's relief. Brendan is able to assure Vicky that Sonny, Joanna Perrin's pony, is fine...he was spotted wandering on the outskirts of town. It's been 1.5 hours since Shirley first got to the hospital to work. She decides to go back to the Club. She insists that Vicky stay and help Simon and she agrees very ungraciously, sparking an argument with Simon. Ackerley collapses while fighting the fire and is helped to safety. Shirley asks everyone in the Club if they've seen Frank but no one has. Bob arrives with good news -- the fires are under control and the roads are clear. People can return home. Coralie's house was one of the victims of the fires...Cookie's brother-in-law burned his hands trying to save it. During a lull in things at the hospital, Brendan decides to go home to check on Molly. Eddy brings Ackerley in to the hospital and Terence keeps him in for observations. Eddy speculates to Terence that maybe Frank, who transferred to another unit, was affected by the fire the same way Ackerley was (after all, he's no spring chicken).

Shirley is upset about Frank's absence. Cookie tries to show Shirley the itemized list of things that were used for the emergency and have to be replaced. Bob finds Frank outside the Club and brings him in. He's exhausted. Esme is upset with Cookie again and takes to calling him Mr. Locke again. Pam Foley stops by the hospital to apologize to Terence. Brendan arrives home to find Molly playing with Chloe. He tries to make up for the arguments they were having but she wants to keep arguing. She gives in when she learns that he only has 30 minutes free. She shows him that Chloe can stand (and walk) now.