VOLUNTEERS and staff of the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) Orana team come and go regularly from Dubbo as fires in the south-east threaten to become a monster of destruction.
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Every four days a crew of eight or nine volunteers returns to the Orana Fire Control Centre near Dubbo airport and another one leaves for Lithgow.
They will do so for "weeks and weeks" in the absence of soaking rain across many days in the fire-affected communities.
This week the firefighters from brigades in the Dubbo, Wellington and Narromine areas are gearing up for what team leader Lyndon Wieland calls a "worst-case scenario", for which he has helped plan a counter-attack.
Superintendent Wieland is back at Dubbo for a few days after serving as night incident controller at RFS headquarters in Katoomba.
As part of the incident management team operating there, he played a part in the formulation of plans should fires at Lithgow, the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury come together.
On Sunday NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell declared a state of emergency that allowed emergency services personnel to trigger a range of measures including evacuations and shutting down utilities such as power and water.
"The RFS commissioner has advised weather conditions over the next few days will deteriorate significantly and that there is potential for a significant and widespread danger to life and property across the State," Mr O'Farrell said at the weekend.
Yesterday Superintendent Wieland said a "bad day" this week could result in the fires becoming one and impacting on the villages along Bells Line of Road and more populated communities on the Great Western Highway.
The predicted maximum temperature of 29 degrees Celsius at Lithgow yesterday is expected to fall to 26 and 17 degrees tomorrow and Thursday, respectively.
But yesterday's wind speed of 10km/h will have doubled by Thursday.
About 200 houses have been lost in the Blue Mountains since NSW began to burn.
Superintendent Wieland has confirmed the enormity of the bushfire emergency.
"In my lifetime within the system, I've never seen as much active fire in the Blue Mountains," he said.
"We're just so lucky here in NSW that we've got a structure together to deal with this and we've been training for years."
Superintendent Wieland will head back to the Blue Mountains tomorrow .
His deputy Bob Conran will work at Lithgow today.
Other staff of the Orana team were serving in Singleton and "head office" in Sydney yesterday.
More Orana team volunteers are being asked to consider if they can join the strike teams heading to the mountains.
"We need that, we really need it more than ever," Superintendent Wieland said.
In his Dubbo office yesterday, Mr Wieland said "very good senior volunteers" were ready to help with incident management in the Orana zone if need be.
He has urged volunteers remaining at home to respond to pagers and calls, and asked landholders to be responsible and prepare their properties for the event of fire.
Superintendent Wieland said the preparation of bushfire survival plans using a template on the NSW RFS website was "really important".
He said people in the Blue Mountains "will tell you at the moment" that having one saves lives and houses.
There are up to 700 active volunteers in the Orana zone where about 60 per cent of vegetation is cured.
"When it gets really volatile here is when it gets up around that 75 and above," Superintendent Wieland said.
Temperatures in the 30s this week in Dubbo and district have prompted meticulous planning.
"If a fire starts it will make it hard for us, but I'm pretty confident that the resources I've got here will handle it," Superintendent Wieland said.
He wants the community to "help us to help you".
