NSW communities are bracing for news of property damage and loss after another long night for the state's firefighters.
Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said they were receiving reports of "significant damage and destruction" on Saturday night after more than a dozen blazes reached an emergency warning alert level throughout the day.
He believed property losses could run into the dozens.
"Some areas alone are reporting at least 15 properties alight in some locations," Mr Fitzsimmons told ABC TV.
A Rural Fire Service strike team near a bushfire in North Nowra, 160 kilometres south of Sydney. Source: AAP
RFS Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers later said properties had been reported lost or impacted in the Batlow area south of Tumut, North Nowra and Bundanoon in the Southern Highlands.
"Hopefully in a couple of hours conditions will start to ease but I've got to say there is so much fire out there that I don't think the danger is going to pass for some time," Mr Rogers said on Saturday night.
"We have no chance of getting containment on these fires anytime soon."
Rural Fire Service personnel at a roadblock near a bushfire in North Nowra. Source: AAP
Emergency warnings were in place early on Sunday for fires in the Snowy Monaro and Bega Valley regions as well as in the Southern Highlands and at the 271,683-hectare Green Wattle Creek blaze southwest of Sydney.
As firefighters worked through the night, a large water tank burst in the town of Cooma, south of Canberra, injuring a woman and sending water flooding through streets and homes.
A statewide total fire ban is in place on Sunday while a week-long state of emergency - the third in as many months - continues.
