More than 3000 firefighters will be battling blazes in NSW on Saturday,while a further 500 will be located at strategic points."We are ready to respond to whatever the day throws at us,"he said.
On Friday evening NSW Emergency services minister David Elliott,who had been criticised by colleagues for leaving the country during an emergency, posted a picture of himself at RFS headquarters along with an apology.
"My absence over the last week was inexcusable. I should have put my RFS family first and foremost given the current conditions (even my own family acknowledge that) and now it’s time to get back to work,"he said.
After he washeckled by angry residents in on NSW's South Coast on Thursday,Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he understood that people were feeling a"sense of frustration,and hurt,and loss and anger"due to the ferocity of the bushfire disasters.
But he said the Commonwealth and Defence Force were"stepping up"as he warned that there would be"some gruelling days ahead". About 1000 people were due to be evacuated by the Navy from the Victorian coastal town of Mallacoota by late Friday.
Earlier,NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance,who nearly lost his Malua Bay home to fire,took a swipe at Mr Morrison,saying he received"the welcome that he probably deserved"on the South Coast.
Mr Morrison sought to downplay any rift with the NSW Liberal minister,saying he had reached out on Friday to Mr Constance,who had been through"a terrible experience and ordeal".
But federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese upped pressure on the Prime Minister for a"national response"to the bushfire crisis.
"People know this is not business as usual. We haven't in my lifetime had people on beaches waiting to be evacuated. It requires national leadership and a national response,"he said."This is a national emergency. It is important that the response be appropriate to the scale of this emergency."
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NSW Police confirmed a man,believed to be 72,was found dead in a car after bushfires swept the South Coast. On Friday evening,they confirmed the death of man in the state's north-east,as a result of burns he sustained in November,bringing the NSW bushfire death toll since July to 17.
A total fire ban remains in place across NSW as 130 fires ravage the state,including 50 which are out of control. So far,1365 homes have been lost – 449 of them since New Year's Eve – while 3.6 million hectares have been burnt this fire season.
"Leave zones"have been declared for an area stretching hundreds of kilometres from Nowra in the Shoalhaven region to the Victorian border and west to Kosciuszko.
Temperatures are expected to climb to 41 degrees in Batemans Bay,37 degrees in Jindabyne and 46 degrees in parts of western Sydney on Saturday. A top of 35 degrees is forecast for the inner city.
In a sign of the size of the evacuation from NSW's South Coast,more than 18,000 vehicles travelled northbound through Nowra on the Princes Highway between midnight and 4pm on Friday,figures from the state's transport agency show.
In Victoria,two people have been confirmed dead from the bushfires and the number of people unaccounted for in the state rose to 28 on Friday,from 17 a day earlier.
The country's bushfire crisis led to a state of disaster being declared in Victoria for the first time in the state's history,giving authorities powers to evacuate residents and towns in six designated local government areas and the Alpine Resorts.