NSW bushfires Fire crews to work overnight to battle 18 out of control blazes.
Channel: Break News Today
Date: 06/11/2016

After a punishing day of firefighting in New South Wales, 18 fires out of 60 remain out-of-control.

Firefighters will be working through the night on two of the biggest fires in Cessnock in the Hunter Valley and further north near Port Stephens, the RFS said today.

Inspector Ben Shepherd said more than 1200 firefighters were on duty at the height of emergency warnings in the two areas.

By early evening, both fires were downgraded to "watch and act".

Crews in the Port Stephens area face 80km of fire edge over the next 48 hours as the weather showed no signs of easing until Wednesday, Insp Shepherd said.

"The fire has actually burnt out over 6500 hectares," he said.

That fire moved quickly across the Pacific Highway and went across the top of the town of Karuah, but then turned direction and went north towards Limeburners Creek, he said.

"So at the moment we've got a lot of uncontained fire on the Lone Pine fire," Insp Shepherd said.

There were reports of property damage, but those were yet to be confirmed, he said.

The sky was dark in Cessnock well before nightfall this afternoon as out-of-control fires continued to burn in the Hunter Valley town's southern suburbs of Kitchener and Abernethy.

Cessnock resident Debbie Donn, a hotel manager in the nearby suburb of Kearsley, was worried for her business and her house, not far from the blaze.