At least 16 homes and up to 90 outbuildings have been lost in the Currowan fire on the South Coast, the NSW RFS has confirmed.
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During a public meeting at the Ulladulla Civic Centre on Wednesday, Currowan fire incident controller Superintendent Mark Williams said he expected the losses to increase as crews assessed more areas.
"We've got five building impact assessment teams out there... those teams are continuing to move throughout the fire ground as these roads open up," Superintendent Williams said.
"Currently we're looking at 16 [properties lost], I do expect that to continue to increase but we are about 60 per cent of the way through that."
The homes lost include primary residences, abandoned buildings on farms and lived-in caravans.
While Supt Williams said the property loss was devastating it was important to remember the number of properties that were saved.
"They've been saved by not only the firefighting crews but also the residents who were prepared and stayed back and defended their property."
The Currowan fire has burnt through 82,000ha and remains at advice level.
Firefighters have experienced good weather conditions over the past few days.
Supt Williams said they were now strengthening containment lines up to 30km from the firefront.
"What we are currently doing is employing a new tactic and actually preparing the areas in front of this fire to the north and particularly to the south.
"We've been developing containment strategies should this fire continue to grow, which we are expecting it to do over the coming weeks."