The mayor of the Blue Mountains has praised the resilience of residents who lost their homes in Thursday's bushfires.
Mark Greenhill says he and other local councillors spent the evening comforting residents affected by the "unprecedented" fires that tore through the area.
"The Blue Mountains has experienced bushfire before, but nothing like this," Mr Greenhill told the Seven Network.
"We lost scores of homes; there are a lot of families without homes right through the area.
"We spent the evening ... comforting residents who had lost everything. This has been a very tough 24 hours for the community of the Blue Mountains.
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"The resilience that they showed is awesome."
He said unconfirmed reports suggested around 40 homes had been lost around Springwood and a dozen more at Mt Victoria.
Mr Greenhill said senior RFS officers told him the fire was "absolutely unprecedented" in terms of the speed with which it came down the mountain.
"The worst factors came together at the worst time," he said.
His comments came as the RFS said around 170 firefighters were continuing to battle the uncontained blaze at Springwood.
Premier Barry O'Farrell also praised the co-operation and coordination of fire fighting crews.
He said he had signed an order to ensure volunteers fighting the fires weren't penalised by employers.
"We have had an early start to the fire season and the scale of yesterday's bush fires is simply staggering," he said.
"The NSW government - and indeed every citizen of this state - is deeply grateful to both the volunteer and salaried firefighters involved in protecting the lives and property of others across NSW.
"Without the help of the thousands of volunteers we would not be able to effectively fight fires around the state."
