Dozens of buildings are feared damaged or destroyed in a huge bushfire burning northwest of Sydney, with reports some firefighters may have lost their homes.
The Gospers Mountain fire, which is creeping towards 400,000 hectares in size, was at ‘watch-and-act’ level early on Monday after firefighters worked overnight to contain the blaze around Mt Wilson, Mt Tomah and Berambing.
It stretches from the Lithgow area in the west, through the Hawkesbury area and towards the Central Coast in the east.
NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons described it as an “awful scenario”.
“We have reports of dozens of building, structures having been damaged or destroyed,” he told Nine’s Today Show.
“We are just not sure on homes and outbuildings and sheds and those sorts of things. I am hearing reports that even our local members and it might be our local captain have lost their home last night trying to defend their local community.”
A heatwave forecast for this week will make for an “extraordinary amount of work still to go”, he added.
Fire has consumed almost three million hectares of land across the state this season, supported by hot, dry and windy conditions.
“The drought is having an absolutely profound effect on the vegetation, and its flammability. We are seeing fire burn effectively unimpeded under windy conditions,” Mr Fitzsimmons said.
The threat, which had been raised to emergency level over the weekend, was downgraded and not posing an immediate threat by Monday morning.
But authorities have warned there’s a risk that embers could fall in the Bilpin area, starting new blazes ahead of the main fire front.
The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast severe heatwave conditions for most of NSW throughout the week.
With more than 100 fires burning in NSW the RFS said it is particularly concerned about conditions from Wednesday onwards.
“There’s going to be a lot of work going on over the next 24 hours to try and just see what we can do to protect as many properties as we can, but people should be under no illusions,” RFS deputy commissioner Rob Rogers said on Sunday night.
“We’re going to have to get through this next week of really hot weather with these fires being very active.”
Ahead of soaring temperatures, Western Sydney Local Health District on Monday warned residents to keep well hydrated and cool to avoid heat-related illnesses and check in on elderly friends, neighbours and relatives.
“Extreme heat conditions can have serious impacts on peoples’ health,” WSLHD Centre for Population Health deputy director Christine Newman said in a statement.
Total fire bans are in place for Monday for the central ranges, northwestern, northern slopes and New England regions where the fire danger rating has been set at “severe”.
Some 724 homes, 49 facilities and 1582 outbuildings have been destroyed so far this fire season. Six people have died and 2.7 million hectares have been scorched.
AAP
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