A volunteer firefighter has described horrific scenes on the frontline of NSW's bushfires after a five-day effort to contain the blazes.
The Taree man travelled north to fight fires in the Nymboida and Coutts Crossing areas at the end of last week, and was able to reflect on the catastrophic conditions after the fires were contained on Tuesday evening.
He described the experience as "running on empty with no end in sight".
"I’m speechless. What a physical and an emotional roller coaster it’s been," he wrote.
"Not many of our firefighters had ever seen anything like it, it was literally a firestorm, the intensity and speed it travelled was unbelievable."
The volunteer firefighter apologised to all the families whose homes could not be saved, with some fire crews running out of water and losing access to hydrants encircled by fire.
"I heard a call come on the radio by a very experienced firefighter that I’ll never forget, he said 'What I’ve just seen, I never want to see again in my life'," he wrote.
"At one point, it felt like we were losing more then we could save, it nearly broke us, there were tears shed every time, I guarantee."
The Taree man said he and his colleagues took comfort from how the community banded together to support each other through the week's horrors.
"The hotels, motels, restaurants, giving free beds and free feeds to the firefighters, the evacuated, and the ones really in need that lost it all - how heart warming," he wrote.
The generosity continued, the donations that has been received from far and wide is draw dropping, strangers putting up their spare beds, it really has been spectacular."
He also thanked the families of all the firefighters as well as the wider community for their support.
"Most of all, the families - who evacuated without us - husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, kids who let the firefighters go, who hold it all together and keep the households running, who worry day and night while we're out ... thank you," he wrote.
He signed off: "From a very exhausted firefighter, I’m standing down until needed again."
