Firefighters are warning NSW residents to brace themselves for heatwave conditions that are forecast to fan the more than 100 bushfires raging across the state.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Some 115 fires were burning on Tuesday morning with 59 of them uncontained. But none were burning above an advice level.
Daytime temperatures in NSW and the ACT are expected to exceed 40C from Tuesday through to Saturday while in the western half of the state the mercury is set to top 45C.
The heatwave will likely spark an elevated fire risk across NSW, the Bureau of Meteorology and NSW Health warned on Monday.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian says bushfires have already taken a "tragic" toll on the state.
"When you have extreme fire fronts this large, people have to make decisions about what to protect, where to put priorities, where to put resources and I have every confidence that our teams are doing an exceptional job," she told reporters on Tuesday.
"If you look at how bad the fires have been and how widespread they've been, it's pretty much a miracle, the lives lost haven't been more and I'm deeply grateful for that."
Six people have died in bushfires so far this season and more than 720 homes have been lost.
Ms Berejiklian said NSW was resourced to meet the crisis.
"I feel at this stage that our resourcing is meeting needs."
NSW Rural Fire Service deputy commissioner Rob Rogers says firefighters will not be able to contain every blaze before conditions deteriorate.
"While we're very concerned about the Gospers Mountain fire, there are more than 100 fires burning throughout the state," he told reporters.
"Anyone of them could cause problems over ensuing days."
The massive Gospers Mountain bushfire burning northwest of Sydney was downgraded to advice level on Tuesday morning after a torrid day on Monday.
The fire destroyed up to 20 buildings in the Blue Mountains after firefighters lost control of a backburning operation and the blaze jumped containment lines.
The bushfire is burning on multiple fronts from the Lithgow area in the west, through the Hawkesbury area and towards the Central Coast in the east. It's so far destroyed almost 400,000 hectares.
Overnight, emergency warnings for the Palmers Oaky fire near Capertree and the Kerry Ridge fire in the state's Hunter region were also downgraded to advice level.
Total fire bans are in place on Tuesday for the northwestern and northern slopes regions where the fire danger rating is "very high".
The Bushfire and Natural Hazards Co-operative Research Centre has warned NSW is facing a long and challenging fire season in 2020.
This is due to a combination of severely dry conditions, high temperatures and low humidity.
The entire eastern third of NSW is facing an above-normal fire potential.
Australian Associated Press
