Emergency warnings re-issued for NSW fires

Authorities are fearing more fatalities, after the NSW bushfires claimed their first life. Source: AAP

THE devastating NSW bushfires have claimed their first life, with a man dying as he fought to save his central coast home as authorities fear more fatalities.

The 63-year-old man collapsed from a heart attack outside his Lake Munmorah home and died in Wyong hospital on Thursday afternoon.

Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said hundreds of properties are expected to be lost and residents may be trapped in burnt out homes.

"We've seen some very hostile fire ground situations right throughout yesterday, damage and destruction right across large parts of NSW," Mr Fitzsimmons said.

"We are expecting numbers to be in the hundreds when it comes to homes and buildings and infrastructure and we simply can't ignore the reality that there may be people still within their homes that may not have got out."

He became visibly emotional as he addressed the media, and had to pause to compose himself as he praised the work of firefighters.

"We have the best firefighters in the world," he said.

Premier Barry O'Farrell said the man's death was the worst possible scenario.

"That's the worst that anyone wants to happen and we send our sympathy to his family," Premier Barry O'Farrell said at RFS headquarters in Sydney.

Authorities say the fire threat was far from over despite cooler conditions on Friday as 98 fires continued to burn across NSW with 28 uncontained.

More than 1250 firefighters are battling blazes across the state, with over 360 trucks deployed and around 89,000 hectares burnt, the RFS says.

An emergency warning was been re-issued for Springwood in the Blue Mountains, which already lost an estimated 100 homes on Thursday.

Springwood High School was threatened by flames, but children remained at the school with RFS firefighters on site.

Seven schools in the Blue Mountains and one in Lithgow remained closed on Friday.

The mayor of the Blue Mountains, Mark Greenhill, praised the resilience of residents who lost their homes in Thursday's bushfires.

"The Blue Mountains has experienced bushfire before, but nothing like this," Mr Greenhill told the Seven Network.

"We lost scores of homes. There are a lot of families without homes right through the area.

"We spent the evening ... comforting residents who had lost everything. This has been a very tough 24 hours for the community of the Blue Mountains."

To the north of Sydney, the RFS also reissued an emergency warning for a fire burning in the Wyong area on the NSW central coast.

A spokesman said the Rutley Road fire's eastern side is now threatening properties on Chain Valley Bay Road, at Chain Valley Bay.

The fire has already ripped through 1500 hectares of scrub and is believed to have destroyed numerous homes, including historic residences.

"I've been advised that it's been confirmed that four houses in the heritage village of Catherine Hill Bay have been lost," Lake Macquarie Mayor Jodie Harrison told ABC radio.

"The historic jetty is currently on fire."

Properties on the eastern side of Murrays Beach at Lake Macquarie on the Central Coast were also threatened.

An RFS spokeswoman said 50 fire fighters were fighting a 496 hectare blaze at Mt Victoria in the Blue Mountains, and that at Balmoral in the southern highlands more than 120 firefighters were battling a blaze running toward Bargo and MacArthur Drive, at Wilton.

She also said over 120 fire fighters were at the Hank Street fire at Port Stephens, north of Sydney.

For those unable to meet the cost of essential repairs to their homes financial assistance is available under the NSW Disaster Relief Scheme, Mr O'Farrell said.

Senior Assistant Police Commissioner Dick Adams and former Rural Fire Service Commissioner Phil Koperberg will head the emergency recovery, he said in a statement.

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