Fire and Rescue NSW Griffith deputy captain Gerry Rizzeri returned home with a slightly burnt nose and harrowing tales of the close encounters he'd had.

"In all my years of firefighting I've never seen anything like it," Mr Rizzeri said.

"The ferocity of the fire was intense."

Firefighters from Griffith, Yenda, and Hillston fought fires in and around the Lithgow areas, putting out fires, pulling residents from buildings, and rescuing horses from paddocks.

The firefighters had to fight against some truly brutal conditions: dense bush, 5 per cent humidity, and 90 kilometre gusts of wind that caused the fires to spread at an alarming rate.

Yenda's acting deputy captain Michael Horley vividly recalls driving down a street as flames leaped from house to house.

"By the end the whole street was on fire," Mr Horley said.

"We tried to protect all these houses with the limited resources available to us."

In an effort to conserve water the firefighters had to resort to dry fire fighting techniques, manually clearing dirt lines with shovels and rake hoses.

Senior instructor Anthony Hatch and his team had to rescue another crew that had been trapped in a firetruck overrun by flames.

"We were on the point of rapid extrication, and two of the guys that came along were brand new," Mr Hatch said.

"For a lot of them it was their first big deployment, and they did a really great job."

Crews encountered several residents who chose to stay and defend their houses, including one man who was spotted on the roof with shorts, a singlet, a beer in one hand and a hose in another.

Ambulance crews had to tend to several residents who had slipped and fell off their roofs while attempting to save their houses from the bushfires.

One elderly couple chose to stay in their house and quickly found themselves trapped as the flames surrounded their property.

"They were lucky to have survived," Mr Horley said.

"One of the crews pulled them out of the house and five minutes later their house was fully engulfed."

Mr Rizzeri is urging Griffith residents not to repeat the mistakes of some Lithgow residents by keeping an eye out for the danger signs and knowing when to leave an at-risk house.

"Prepare early. If you're going to leave, sooner is better than later," Mr Rizzeri said.

"I know people want to stay and defend their property, which is honourable, but property can be replaced and life can't."

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