At least three firefighters have been taken to hospital suffering burns from a blaze south-west of Sydney.RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said on Thursday he had “heard reports of a crew that was overrun by fire near the Bargo area with a number of crew members suffering serious burn injuries”.
Mr Fitzsimmons said the injuries included “two males with face and airway burns and some other burns to different parts of the body”.
And he said one woman is “suffering some burns, smoke inhalation and minor burns”.
It comes as firefighters confirmed three homes were gutted by fire at Balmoral, near Picton.
Video shot by an ABC helicopter confirmed the losses, with firefighters desperately trying to defend surrounding properties.
Earlier, Rural Fire Service crews confirmed a bushfire had crossed nearby railway lines and moved towards the Balmoral homes.
Video shot by the RFS shows thick plumes of smoke gathering nearby several structures in the region.
The Hume Highway is cut between Campbelltown and Mittagong, causing extensive delays along the major highway.
The RFS has extreme fire danger warnings in place for the Greater Sydney, Illawarra and Shoalhaven and Southern Ranges areas.
NSW has declared the second state of emergency this fire season.
The NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian made the announcement on Thursday morning, saying it would be for seven days.
“The decision to declare a state of emergency is not taken lightly,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“The commissioner and myself and the minister discussed this almost on a daily basis, and we take advice from the experts because we know you don’t do it lightly – it’s only in extreme conditions.”
Ms Berejiklian said she had not yet notified Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is currently holidaying with his family overseas in an undisclosed location.
“I didn’t for the last one,” she said.
“As the Premier of NSW, it’s completely my decision.”
The state of emergency allows powers to be transferred from the government to Mr Fitzsimmons, including the ability to control and co-ordinate the allocation of resources and evacuate people from property within a declared area.
Mr Fitzsimmons said this was a critical time for his volunteer firefighters.
“The reality is you simply can’t save everything and everybody under these sorts of conditions, despite your very best of efforts,” he said.
“We’re talking about people doing superhuman activities, but the reality is they’re not superhuman themselves – they are real, ordinary, everyday people that are invested in their community.”
Five 100-person ‘strike teams’ have also been placed on standby to deploy to the most dangerous fires in response to the increasingly complex fire conditions posed by Thursday’s heat.
Mr Fitzsimmons said his key concerns were the incoming heatwaves as well as the health impacts caused by rising smoke levels across the state.
“In the last seven days, we’ve seen a 10 per cent increase in our call-outs for patients suffering respiratory conditions – this is a group of people who really need to be very vigilant,” he said.
“Just this morning, I became aware of a 3-year-old who had such a severe asthma attack that they were unable to speak.”
Up to 100 bushfires continue to rage across the state as dangerous fire conditions continue to threaten large areas, spurred on by a day of severely high temperatures.
Firefighters will confront an “enormous challenge” in the coming days as the temperatures soar and volatile winds whip up fires.
Ms Berejiklian warned there were significant bushfire risks on Thursday and Saturday with the potential for “exceedingly concerning” winds to blow embers well ahead of fire fronts.
“It’s going to mean very unpredictable fire conditions,” she said.
Mr Fitzsimmons said fire behaviour would be “erratic and significant” due to the winds.
“We can expect the winds to be up and conditions to be at their peak very early in the morning and we’ll have high sustained fire dangers for something like 15 hours.
A statewide total fire ban announced on Tuesday will remain in place until midnight on Saturday.
The main concern is the huge Gospers Mountain fire northwest of Sydney, which is still burning out of control on multiple fronts in the Wollemi National park.
The fire was a ‘watch and act’ level on Thursday morning, but there was no immediate threat to property, although this could change as the day progresses and heatwave conditions worsen.
The Bureau of Meteorology expects most of inland NSW will see temperatures in the mid-40s while areas west of the Sydney CBD are expected to top 41C.
At least three million hectares of land has been torched across Australia in recent months, with six people killed and more than 800 homes destroyed.
Of the fires burning around the state, more than half are uncontained.sbs