Firefighters are still labouring to protect homes in NSW's Central Coast, after one man died and historic properties are feared lost in the bushfires.
In the first casualty of a fire disaster, a 63-year-old man at Lake Munmorah suffered a heart attack while he was fighting a fire at his home on Thursday afternoon.
Attempts were made to resuscitate him at the scene but he died at Wyong hospital.
On Friday night the fire at Ruttleys Road had been downgraded from an emergency warning to a watch and act and is now being controlled, the Rural Fire Service (RFS) said.
Over the past 24 hours the fire ran through Tall Timbers Road, Carters Road and Kanangra Drive, spreading into the Munmorah State Conservation Area and then burning into Catherine Hill Bay.
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But firefighters reported on Friday evening that the threat had reduced to properties in the Chain Valley Bay North, Gwandalan and Summerland Point communities, following successful back burning.
As residents at the heritage seaside town of Catherine Hill Bay returned to the area on Friday, they said up to five historical buildings were feared lost, including the 19th century Wallarah House at Catherine Hill Bay.
Wayne Demarco described the landscape as "apocalyptic".
"It looks horrible with telephone poles burned to the ground and things just destroyed," he told AAP.
But Lake Macquarie Mayor Jodie Harrison says she is confident locals will band together.
"To see people from ... really tight-knit villages... at a time of such uncertainty is very sad," she told AAP.
Speaking from outside the Swansea RSL, which has been turned into an evacuation centre, Ms Harrison described the agonising wait for up to 60 evacuees waiting to return home.
"The uncertainty is the most unsettling and disturbing thing for people."
Evacuation centres remain open at Swansea RSL and Doyalson RSL.
