Major fires in the Snowy Valleys and Green Valley could merge on Saturday as wind and heat fan the flames.
Superintendent Roger Orr, the incident controller for the Snowy Valleys area, said firefighters were expecting "terrible conditions" in the area.
"We're getting winds starting to increase now from the north-east," he said about 10am on Saturday.
"We're expecting them to go through to the north-west, which has the potential to drive a couple of the major fires together - the Green Valleys fire and the Dunns Road fire here at Snowy Valleys."
Superintendent Orr said an emergency warning issued for the Batlow area, just outside Tumut, was triggered late on Friday afternoon after fire began to impact on Old Tumbarumba Road.
"Subsequently, firefighters and heavy plant [machinery] were able to get around that, so we downgraded it back to a watch and act [on Friday night]."
It was upgraded back to emergency about 1pm Saturday.
Superintendent Orr said a number of strike teams were on the ground, with firefighters well-prepared at expected pressure points
He said water bombers had been able to make some impact on the Dunns Road fire in "areas of concern" at the northern edge of the fire late in the day on Friday.
Building impact assessment teams were working in affected areas and Superintendent Orr said estimates of 61 houses and 38 outbuildings being lost in areas south of Batlow, including Kunama and the northern part of Tumbarumba, were at this stage unconfirmed.
He urged residents who were staying in largely evacuated areas like Batlow to shelter as the fire approached and not get in the path of the fire.
Meanwhile, residents have heeded warnings and moved away from fire-affected areas.
Doug and Isabel Heard haven't had much luck lately.
The couple's most recent evacuation marks the sixth time they have had to move in the last few weeks as a result of the bushfires burning in various parts of NSW.
On Saturday morning, they were at a caravan park in Tumut, having evacuated from their property in Talbingo, a small town at the edge of the Snowy Mountains.
But their series of evacuations started in the Braidwood area, near Canberra. They had to leave a property close to Monga National Park several times, including on Christmas Eve, as bushfires burned nearby.
"We were going to have a party on the farm [on Christmas Eve]," Mr Heard said.
"There were 20 people coming, but we had to get out. We also own property in Talbingo so we thought we'd go there."
On Saturday morning, the NSW Rural Fire Service said the Dunns Road fire was burning south of the Snowy Mountains Highway towards Talbingo.
Mr Heard said he was waiting to hear from his daughter-in-law about whether it was safe to go back to the property in Braidwood when they left Tumut.
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Kunama resident Brendan Bau also evacuated to a Tumut caravan park.
He said he decided to leave when he received a call from a local firefighter telling him the fire was approaching.
"I didn't have a chance to do anything," Mr Bau said.
"I saw it coming down the driveway so I had to get out.
"Hopefully it's still like it was when I last saw it. I still had a house then.
"I've got another house in the Batlow area so I'm waiting to see what happens there too."
Batlow was almost completely deserted after the Rural Fire Service earlier urged residents to leave, describing the town as "not defendable" as fire approached, but some residents stayed behind to try and save their properties.
Monitor the NSW Rural Fire Service website for fire updates.
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