An entire town has been all but wiped out by bushfires that ravaged NSW's Central West at the weekend as firefighters continued to battle uncontained blazes on Monday.
Initial assessments of fire affected areas across the state indicated that a total of 30 homes had been confirmed destroyed however only 50 per cent of the Warrumbungle region in which Uarbry lies had been assessed.
Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said 20 fires were still uncontained, after blazes burnt across "a very large area", consuming everything in their path.
It was expected that cooler temperatures on Monday, after Sunday's catastrophic conditions, would help crews gain an upper hand.
"We know there is clearly losses. Losses in homes, losses in buildings, losses in livestock and other agricultural assets," he told the Nine Network.
"The extraordinary effort of firefighters. What they saved yesterday will far outweigh the losses that we report today.
Firefighters tackle the blaze in the Warrumbungle region. Source: Supplied
"I know that is cold comfort for those who have lost so much and I don't mean any disrespect or being insensitive, but we cannot take away from the amount of property, people, livelihoods that have been saved under yesterday's conditions.
"The most critical thing out of this firefighting effort ... to not have any reports of loss of life, or any serious injury to anyone in front of these fires or imapcted by these fires was our primary focus and was an outstanding result," he said.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian echoed Mr Fitzsimmons' relief but stressed that the fires still posed a threat.
"We are so relieved this morning that there hasn't been loss of life, but our thoughts are with the many people who have lost their homes.
"We're not out of the woods, however we are beyond the worst part of those catastrophic conditions which existed over the weekend," she said.
Two fires remain at watch-and-act levels near the towns of Dunedoo and near Mudgee with RFS crews focusing on these areas on Monday.
"This is the worst day we've seen in the history of NSW when it comes to fire danger ratings and fire danger conditions," Mr Fitzsimmons told reporters on Sunday.
The Sir Ivan fire, near Dunedoo, has burned through almost 50,000 hectares with an active fire edge of about 200km, Mr Fitzsimmons said.
The Kains Flat fire northeast of Mudgee has burnt through 5000 hectares.
Mr Fitzsimmons said critical backburning and patrol work will be undertaken in the coming days, and that an impact assessment team were already working to determine the precise extend of the damage.
"Clearly, the weather is going to be of some benefit but there is a lot of very dirty, difficult and dangerous work ahead for firefighters before we can come close to getting these fires under control."
By Monday evening, the NSW Rural Fire Service had established that the Sir Ivan Fire in the Warrumbungle destroyed 23 homes.
Four homes were destroyed at Pappinbarra in the Port Macquarie-Hastings area. Two houses were ruined at Spring Hill Road Dondingalong Fire in Kempsey region and one house burned down at Binalong Road, Boggabri, in the Narrabri region.
Only 30 percent of the Narrabri region has been assessed.
The fire danger will remain very high on Monday in the Greater Hunter and surrounding fire areas, Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Neil Fraser told AAP.
No part of the state will face severe, extreme or catastrophic conditions.
