New South Wales is counting the cost after a long night for the state's firefighters.
Police have confirmed that one man has died of a cardiac arrest trying to defend a friend's rural property outside Batlow in the south-west slopes of NSW.
"Our hearts, thoughts and minds go to the families during this very difficult time," NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said at this morning's news conference with the Rural Fire Service.
A Rural Fire Service strike team near a bushfire in North Nowra, 160 kilometres south of Sydney. Source: AAP
Extensive property damage
Ms Berejiklian also confirmed that early indications show there has been extensive property damage but no concern for missing persons.
"As we feared it was a very long night for many residents across New South Wales," the premier said.
"Indications at this stage there aren't any unaccounted people in New South Wales, and that is the best news we could hope for this morning".
"I want to thank, literally thank, thousands and thousands of people who left behind their houses, left behind their properties to take safe sanction."
"And because of those actions, that is where we are today."
NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said the situation remains difficult across the state.
Rural Fire Service personnel at a roadblock near a bushfire in North Nowra. Source: AAP
"We have just under 150 fires still burning, two of them at emergency warning alert level and another nine at the watch and act alert," he said just after 8am Sunday.
Firefighters continue battling a massive bushfire that has damaged properties in the NSW Southern Highlands after jumping a major river.
There are reports of property damage and destruction in the Southern Highlands towns of Wingello and Bundanoon after the Morton fire jumped the Shoalhaven River on Saturday evening.
The fire, burning at an emergency level on Sunday morning, is effectively a new front of the 281,000-hectare Currowan blaze on the NSW South Coast.
Mr Fitzsimmons said the bushfire jumped the Shoalhaven River when "aggressive" southerly winds swept through the state on Saturday.
"It's effectively the Currowan fire that crossed the Shoalhaven and Kangaroo Rivers under a very aggressive southerly and southeasterly change last night," he told reporters on Sunday morning.
"We saw it cross at a number of locations and it headed towards communities, particularly Wingello and Bundanoon. There are reports of property damage around Wingello and Bundanoon."
The fire was spreading quickly on Sunday morning, according to RFS updates.
Firefighters from the RFS Southern Highlands team are working on Sunday morning to map the scale of the Morton fire.
"There's lots of work going on to identify what firefighters can put out and what they can secure, as well as the implementation and consolidation of containment lines over coming days," Mr Fitzsimmons said.
-- With AAP
