Fire and Rescue personal watch a bushfire as it burns near homes on the outskirts of the town of Bilpin on December 19, 2019 in Sydney, Australia. Photo / Getty Images
Fire and Rescue personal watch a bushfire as it burns near homes on the outskirts of the town of Bilpin on December 19, 2019 in Sydney, Australia. Photo / Getty Images
Three firefighters have reportedly been injured in the state's Macarthur region and multiple homes have been lost in a small community in the NSW Southern Highlands.
RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said firefighters battling the massive Green Wattle Creek blaze at the town of Bargo have suffered serious burns.
"I have had reports of a crew that was overrun by fire near the Bargo area with a number of crew members suffering serious burn injuries," he said.
Two males, aged 36 and 56, suffered serious injuries including face and airway burns as well as burns to other parts of their bodies, including arms, elbow, upper chest and a leg.
"I understand all members were alert and conscious. However, given the serious potential for airway burns, the advice is medically they'll be intubated."
Fitzsimmons said the crew of five were one of many working to protect homes in the area when they were "enveloped by fire".
"That fire is still particularly busy and active and the southerly change is just starting to impact across that fire ground now, and there are concerns that that will spread the fire further to the north towards the township and the community of Tahmoor," Fitzsimmons said.
"So we've still got many hours of difficult activity throughout the day and into night."
About 20 homes have reportedly been lost in the town of Balmoral, according to the Daily Telegraph, with many also destroyed in the nearby town of Bargo.
The Green Wattle Creek blaze is out of control and is more than 156,000 hectares in size.
Fire and Rescue duty commander Kerin Lambert told the publication that homes had been lost in the area.
"We have got two major fire fronts having impacted this location on Wilson [Drive], Balmoral," he said.
"When it happened, we had 50m-high winds, at least 100km/h winds, incredible radiant heat and numerous houses were catching alight."
The Hume Highway is closed between Narellan Rd, Campbelltown and Mittagong.
People in Pheasants Nest, Buxton, Couridjah, Thirlmere, Tahmoor have been told it is "too late to leave" and to seek shelter as the fire front approaches.
Ten people including a NSW Greens MP have been arrested as climate protesters launched a "camp-out" at Scott Morrison's Sydney prime ministerial residence.
Greens MP David Shoebridge was among activists outside Kirribilli House on Thursday demanding urgent action amid unprecedented bushfires.
Photo / Getty Images
NSW Police said nine adults and a child had been arrested for disobeying a police direction to move on.
Protesters, including students representing the School Strike 4 Climate movement, set up tents on the road outside Morrison's official residence on Thursday morning, calling it the "Kirribilli camp-out".
They are calling on the federal government to take immediate action on climate change and urged no new coal and gas projects, a transition to 100 per cent renewables and funding for affected fossil fuel workers.
Shoebridge said it had been a "pretty good reason to get arrested".
The prime minister is currently on a family break and will return to work on Monday.
The protesters pledged to stay in place until he returns.
Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack suggested demonstrators were wasting their time.
Photo / Getty Images
"Go and do something productive. Go donate your time to Meals on Wheels or something like that," he told reporters at the Rural Fire Service headquarters in Sydney.
"The fact is, the PM is not there. He's having a well-deserved holiday."
Morrison will work through Christmas and the new year, and travel to India and Japan in January for talks on security and trade.
Student Ambrose Hayes, one of the protest organisers, encouraged people to bring tents, snacks, dust masks and board games to the camp-out.
The 14-year-old Sydneysider believed Morrison's holiday was badly timed.
"Our direct message to Scott Morrison is for him to come home. Even though he's entitled to a holiday, it shouldn't be at a time where Australia is in crisis," Ambrose told the hundreds who had gathered in Kirribilli.
Firefighters among those who have lost homes
A number of firefighters are among those who have lost homes in the Green Wattle Creek fire burning southwest of Sydney.
The blaze has torn through the community of Balmoral and extended further east to impact places like Bargo, Tahmoor and Pheasants Nest.
"Considerable fire activity reports of many structures, many buildings being impacted, including some homes," RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said.
"The advice I've got is that those properties being heavily impacted include a number of local members, local firefighters' homes, as well as others in the community."
He said the firefighters that were unable to save their own and other people's homes are "shattered".
"I've been speaking to the team and they're absolutely shattered. They're trying to protect and save as many and as much of the other infrastructure and valuable assets throughout their community," Fitzsimmons said.
"So naturally they and their families and colleagues are truly devastated by the loss.
"They're devastated by loss no matter what but it just goes that little further when it's your own home or the colleague you've got sitting on the fire truck next to you having lost their home while they're out saving others.
While Sydney's air quality isn't as bad as it was on December 9 – when thick bush fire smoke threw the city into chaos – the air quality index (AQI) was still deemed as "hazardous". A hazardous reading is anything above 200.
Between 11am and noon today, parts of Sydney's AQI were more than three times the hazardous level with the city's southwest hitting levels above 700.
