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NSW bushfires: Properties under threat as fires burn in Hunter Valley, Yass Valley

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Properties have been damaged and other homes remained under threat as bushfires raged into the evening across the Hunter Valley and near the ACT.

Hot and dry conditions were expected to ease on Wednesday night, providing much-needed relief for 600 firefighters who fought almost 40 bush and grass fires across the state on Wednesday.

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Fires threaten homes in Kurri Kurri

Authorities have issued emergency warnings for fires around Kurri Kurri and Heddon Greta, as properties are threatened and students are forced to take shelter in their classrooms. Footage courtesy of Channel 10.

A mother and her young daughter were rescued by helicopter from a burning property in Kurri Kurri, west of Newcastle, where a number of grass fires broke out about 2.30pm on Wednesday.

The fires at Kurri Kurri and nearby Weston and Heddon Greta quickly burnt out of control and the NSW Rural Fire Service issued an emergency warning before downgrading it to "watch and act" at 5.45pm.

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In the Yass Valley, near Canberra, an emergency warning for an out-of-control grass fire at Sutton was downgraded at 6pm.

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An unconfirmed number of properties and sheds around Kurri Kurri have been damaged and an electricity substation has been "severely damaged", RFS Assistant Commissioner Rebel Talbert told ABC Radio in Newcastle.

Ms Talbert said the mother and daughter were rescued from a property on Bowditch Avenue.

"Two others stayed to try to protect the property," she said.

About 60 students took shelter at the nearby TAFE in Kurri Kurri as the fire bore down on the campus. The students were able to leave when the fire moved away in a northerly direction.

Waterbombing aircraft were expected to continue fighting the Kurri Kurri fire into the evening and emergency telephone messages have been sent to homes advising residents to seek shelter as the fire front arrives.

Two grass fires broke out about 2.30pm around Kurri Kurri and Weston, as the region sweltered through high temperatures, high winds and dry conditions.

By 5.45pm, both fires had combined and continued to burn north-west towards Sawyers Gully.

The Hunter Expressway is shut in both directions between Buchanan and Branxton due to the fire.

Dry weather conditions are expected to ease on Wednesday evening, providing crews with the upper hand.

Earlier in the afternoon, RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said the fires were burning "very intensely".

"It's being influenced very much by the hot, dry windy conditions and of course this southerly change is moving through the area turning the fire in different directions," he said.

"It's very dangerous, very volatile. We have had some reports of properties being burnt and catching alight at this stage.

"The confirmations I have received are a number of sheds of buildings in people's backyards but it's [a] very difficult and destructive fire that's burning through parts of Cessnock."

Elsewhere in NSW, one southbound lane of the M1 was closed from Cameron Park to Holmesville, near Lake Macquarie, at 5.30pm due to an out-of-control bushfire at Northville Drive, Barnsley.

An "erratic" grassfire near Tarago, 70 kilometres north-east of Canberra, has burnt 3300 hectares, destroyed at least one property and killed livestock in the last 24 hours.

Photo gallery
Bushfire watch is on high alert as temperature ramps up in NSW and Canberra

By Wednesday evening, firefighters were tackling 31 fires burning in NSW, 20 of which were uncontained.