NSW authorities defend backburning

Easing conditions have helped firefighters control bushfires that raged through Sydney's west. Source: AAP

FIREFIGHTERS are battling bushfires still burning near Sydney with authorities and the NSW government acknowledging the risks of hazard reduction burns.

NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) said crews had contained fires at Castlereagh and Londonderry shortly after 3.30pm on Wednesday.

Across the state there were 63 fires, 21 of which were uncontrolled after destroying one property on Tuesday.

The RFS has issued a "watch and act" alert for one of the worst, a fire in Winmalee in the Blue Mountains, due to winds of up to 45km/h.

"It's nowhere as near as bad as (Tuesday), so we're not expecting problems," Deputy commissioner of the RFS, Rob Rogers, told Fairfax Radio.

"But we want people to be aware there is still a potential for that fire to get out."

Hundreds of Winmalee residents remain without power for a second night after the blaze burned through 21 power poles and four kilometres of power lines.

Meanwhile, the RFS and NSW Police have begun an investigation into the cause and origin of the bushfires.

Some Winmalee residents have raised concerns that recent hazard reduction burns in the area by National Parks may have got out of control on Tuesday.

Mr Rogers said hazard reduction was necessary but conceded they were risky.

"We're damned if we do and we're damned if we don't with hazard reductions," he said.

"But when you introduce fire to the landscape, there's always a level of unpredictability when it comes to the weather."

Mr O'Farrell also defended backburning operations across the state.

"When you don't undertake hazard reduction you leave the fuel load as it is and it grows and that's even more lethal," he said.

The lesson learnt from Tuesday's unprecedented start to bushfire season, he said, was that "too many home owners hadn't cleaned their gutters".

The Fire Brigade Employees Union (FBEU) used the fires to highlight what it said were staff shortages caused by state government funding cuts.

Off-duty firefighters had to be "rushed in" to battle the bushfire emergency because some fire stations were temporarily closed, the FBEU said.

"(Tuesday) was an example of a system under strain," FBEU secretary Jim Casey told AAP.

Mr O'Farrell said no resources were spared.

"In the height of the emergency Tuesday more than 1,200 firefighters and 350 trucks were working against the fires," he said.

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