Six, two, one, eight.
That's the Yarloop postcode, and that's the number the local residents don't ever want us to forget.
![Tattoos ensure the Yarloop postcode will forever remain in the minds of locals and visitors to the devastated town.](/web/20170109062609im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/m/c/r/h/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtmcsd.png/1483585753300.jpg)
I will never erase the horrific memory of covering the Waroona/Yarloop bushfire of 2016.
As we worked through the night to bring locals the latest updates and warnings, I started to get private messages.
Yarloop is on fire? Yarloop has been razed?
It was too terrible to consider.
But the cold, hard light of day told the awful truth.
Yarloop, as we knew and loved it, was gone.
![Mike Brown's new tattoo - Yarloop's postcode and the date the historic town burnt down.](/web/20170109062609im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/m/9/k/1/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtmcsd.png/1483585753300.jpg)
I spent the night receiving updates from ground zero.
It still sends a shiver down my spine when I think of those gathered on the town oval, waiting to hear if their loved ones had made it out alive.
![In October Yarloop residents waged a campaign to convince the government to reopen Yarloop's primary school.](/web/20170109062609im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/m/a/l/1/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtmcsd.png/1483585753300.jpg)
By all accounts, the flames which tore through Yarloop were so fierce and so fast, they couldn't be out-run.
Tragically, two lives were lost that night.
In what was already a catastrophe of epic proportions, this loss of life plunged survivors deeper into shock.
The quiet, small town of Yarloop would never be the same.
Some wondered if it would even survive.
Within weeks, though, signs of life started emerging.
There was hope.
And there was a desire to rebuild by locals who wanted their home back.
Funds started pouring in; the state government promised to help.
People wanted to go back to Yarloop.
So they did.
Now, while just a shadow of its former self, the little town that could is a hive of activity.
Where just 12 months ago it was reduced to ash, there are green shoots everywhere you look.
If you ever needed proof that out of adversity comes strength, Yarloop is it.
Never discount the passion of a small town when the chips are down.
Or the people that give it new life.