Mr Flanagan's fishing and camping store lost 43 per cent of its usual income this summer due to the bushfires. In a seasonal economy, that's the cash that keeps his business ticking over for the rest of the year.

Unable to see a way to keep the business on its feet until next summer, Mr Flanagan set about figuring out how to square the balance sheet with suppliers before it folded.

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With support from the Nowra branch of the Commonwealth Bank - who Mr Flanagan praised - he worked out a plan that would allow him to pay off his debts and keep his home.

It relied on receiving a payout from his insurer. Mr Flanagan had paid for business disruption insurance for several years.

After the fires caused the Princes Highway, which leads to his shop, to close intermittently over the summer, he thought the claim should be simple.

"The policy is for when the business is impacted by an event which prevents customers entering the business," Mr Flanagan said.

"There were times over the summer when staff had to sleep in lounge chairs because they couldn't get home on the highway, but [insurer] Chubb reckons it was just the Kings Highway that was closed."

Without the insurance money, Mr Flanagan faces losing his home of 20 years.

After his story aired on A Current Affair on Monday, Mr Flanagan said he'd been inundated with support.

"I'd like to thank the businesses who have helped me individually, but if I told you all their names there would be four more to add to the list by the time you walked out," he told the South Coast Register.

"It's humbling. I can't describe how it feels. I'm an emotional wreck."

Mr Flanagan was part of the team that rescued the Beaconsfield miners in 2006, and the rest of Australia hasn't forgotten his efforts.

"The man who wrote the policy reached out, lawyers have offered to help," he said.

"A man from Western Australia called to say I'd been his hero in the Beaconsfield rescue. He said: 'I've done well out of racehorses. $5000 won't change my life but it might help you.'"

A GoFundMe account set up by his children has raised more than $50,000. Mr Flanagan said he was not surprised by the generosity of his community.

"It's something uniquely Australian," he said.

"The Beaconsfield rescue saw people dig so deep. During the fires I saw the same tenacity here, people doing whatever they could to save their mates' property. People know how important having your home is - I think that's why they want to help."