Homes and buildings have been destroyed and hundreds of animals killed by an out-of-control Tambaroora bushfire near Hill End, in the NSW Central West.
The 15,700-hectare blaze north of Bathurst has burnt two homes and five outhouses, while 400 sheep and 300 cattle have perished.
The Rural Fire Service warned several hundred rural dwellings could come under threat from the fire over the coming days, particularly around the Crudine, Pyramul and Hargraves areas.
Damage assessment teams are taking stock of the losses, with more losses expected.
Fourteen aircraft and 200 firefighters are using today's more favourable conditions to try to get ahead of the fire and build containment lines around parts of its 113-kilometre perimeter.
Some properties, particularly on Doughertys Junction, Sallys Flat and Hill End roads, are still being threatened.
The fire was downgraded to a Watch and Act level at 4am today but had previously reached emergency level three times over the past three days.
Three community meetings were held at Hill End, Pyramul, and Ilford this morning to inform about 300 locals about the firefighting strategy and what to expect over the coming days.
They were warned the fire could burn for weeks and to use today to prepare their properties.
The fire is burning Jhob Drinkwater's merino stud, about four kilometres from Hill End.
Mr Drinkwater expects it to be at his home soon.
"It has been like a war zone the past few days," he said.
"It's really starting to wear people down," he said.
He let his sheep and horses roam the property so they could seek shelter.
But he will not be leaving and is ready to fight the blaze with the help of locals.
Homes and businesses in the Tambaroora area are without power due to the escalating situation.
The outages are affecting residents in Hargraves and Pyramul, but it is not safe for Essential Energy to access the area to restore power.
A southerly wind change is expected later today which will bring with it higher humidity, easing conditions on the ground.
Blaze remains uncontained
RFS incident controller Troy Porter said the firefighters had done an outstanding job protecting dozens of homes in tough conditions.
"We've still got a lot of work ahead of us so we're going to be well and truly trying to wrap this up over the next couple of weeks," Mr Porter said.
The focus now is on containment.
"In the coming days we're hoping with the conditions that are beginning to ease, that will help us to stop from a response property protection point of view to switch over to containment options and looking at various ways to bring this fire under control," he said.
RFS spokesperson Angela Burford said even though conditions were easing, the situation was still dangerous.
"We don't want people to be complacent … properties are still under threat. This fire is still uncontained," she said.
"As we've seen over the past couple of days, this fire is very dynamic.
The RFS said there had been some cases where property owners had conducted their own backburns and they must not do so.
The blaze has crossed Sallys Flat Road and is spreading east towards Crudine, including towards the Crudine Ridge Wind Farm which is being protected.
CWP Renewables, the site owner, confirmed all turbines had been switched off.
Challenging conditions continue
Ms Burford said after "another day of pretty bad weather" yesterday, crews had worked hard to save what they could.
"So the good news was yesterday and even into the very late hours of last night we did have a number of success stories that we had trucks around homes where we actually able to save those structures," she said.
But the RFS is looking ahead to more extreme fire conditions in the middle of next week, particularly next Wednesday and Thursday.
Tamworth fire controlled
Meanwhile, emergency services are also at the scene of a large grass fire which has been brought under control near Tamworth.
Firefighters responded to reports of a fire at a property on Burgmann's Lane, south of the city, just after midday, and were being supported by aircraft in a bid to fight the blaze.
Crews managed to save three houses under direct threat and are now cleaning up the scene.
