Heroes are easy to find in Malua Bay. Raj Gupta is a lifesaver. Too humble to talk about his own fire losses, he would rather talk about the patients who come to his Malua Bay pharmacy. He opened it in the wake of the fires and dispensed medicine in the dark for free. Ken Sloan is the man you would want to see if a devastating fire had just ripped through. He runs the South Coast’s best opp shop near Malua Bay and on New Year’s Eve morning he was following firetrucks into razed farms to give shattered survivors bottles of water. Emily Maguire has been busy giving haircuts and washes to women who have lost their homes. She sends them home with new makeup and hair products.