Despite the milder conditions,150 fires are still burning across the state including a giant blaze south-west of Eden on the far South Coast,which has torn across more than 140,000 hectares,turning daytime"pitch black"and leaving residents terrified.
Fires also swept through the Southern Highlands and Kangaroo Valley,destroying homes atBundanoon,Wingello and other small towns after an enormous blaze in the state's south known as the Currowan fire jumped the Shoalhaven River late on Saturday night.
The death toll in NSW from the bushfire crisis rose to 17 after David Harrison,a 47-year-old from Goulburn,died from a cardiac arrest on Saturday while helping a friend defend his rural property at Batlow in the Snowy Mountains. Four firefighters were injured at the weekend,including one who had serious burns to his hands.
Initial estimates from the Rural Fire Service late on Sunday put the number of homes destroyed over the weekend at 60,taking the total lost in NSW so far this bushfire season to 1425.
But NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said that property losses across broad areas of the state,including the South Coast and Southern Highlands,were likely to rise into the hundreds."[There is] a lot of damage and destruction,"he said.
Nine fires remained at a"watch and act"warning late on Sunday,which Mr Fitzsimmons said was indicative of"ongoing fire behaviour and potential ... in and around lots of communities".