An emergency rescue operation to ferry at least 18 horses from Tumbarumba to safety has taken place.
As fire threatened properties in the township on the western side of the big Koscziusko National Park, animal lovers in Wagga Wagga banded together to drive and pick up the animals.
"So many people have come together to do this," said one of the rescuers, Barb Wiscomb.
"They are entrusting us with their animals and they don't even know us," Ms Wiscomb said of the residents of the township.
Tumbarumba and the region around were on high alert, with warnings that two nearby fires could converge into a mega-blaze.
Witnesses said there was a "scene of devastation between Batlow and Tumbarumba".
The NSW Department of Primary Industries and the Local Land Services urged landholders in the region to activate their bush fire survival plan and to consider moving livestock off site.
Conditions are forecast to deteriorate on Saturday on the fire ground. Forecasters said the blaze could start its own fire-generated thunderstorm.
