Fatal accident occurred while RFS crews were battling fires outside Sydney as record temperatures create ‘volatile and erratic’ conditions

Two volunteer firefighters have been killed and three have been taken to hospital with severe burns as the bushfire emergency raging across the east coast of Australia reached a new crisis point on Thursday.

The two NSW Rural Fire Service volunteers were killed when a truck believed to have been travelling in convoy near the town of Buxton late on Thursday hit a tree and rolled off the road.

The driver and front passenger died at the scene, police said, while three other firefighters were injured.

The fatal accident occurred at the end of an exhausting day for firefighters in which it’s feared some 40 homes could have been lost in Buxton, Balmoral, Bargo and surrounds, as the Green Wattle Creek blaze tore through the Wollondilly Shire on Thursday. The NSW RFS officially says 20 homes may have been lost but there are reports 40 buildings were destroyed.

“The Service’s thoughts are with all the firefighters’ family, friends and fellow brigade members,” the RFS said in a statement early on Friday.

“This is an absolutely devastating event in what has already been an incredibly difficult day and fire season.”

The premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said on Twitter the news was “devastating”, and NSW had “tragically lost two heroes”.

Earlier on Thursday, three firefighters were treated for burns after their truck was enveloped by the bushfire.

Two members of the crew, a 36-year-old man and a 56-year-old man, needed to be intubated to protect their breathing as they were airlifted from the scene with serious facial and airway burns. Fitzsimmons said the two men also suffered burns to their arms, elbow, upper chest and leg.

A 28-year-old woman was also treated for smoke inhalation and superficial burns and was taken to hospital by road ambulance.

Record temperatures and gusty, damaging winds combined with the prolonged drought crippling this part of the world to create what the commissioner of the Rural Fire Service, Shane Fitzsimmons, described as “volatile and erratic” conditions as more than 100 fires continued to burn across New South Wales.

A day that began with Berejiklian declaring a second week-long state of emergency in a little over a month ended with Fitzsimmons telling media that three firefighters had been hospitalised after a crew of volunteers was “overrun” and “enveloped” by fire while trying to protect homes.

How big are the fires burning on the east coast of Australia? Interactive map Read more

Fitzsimmons, whose press conferences have become an increasingly common sight, appeared shaken as he described how the five-person crew had been overwhelmed as a fire burning to Sydney’s south-west changed from metre-high flames to a towering inferno in a matter of minutes.

“I have had field reports from out there that very quickly they saw lots of fire activity, from metre-high flame heights to flames burning through the tops of trees [and] crowning fires, under very strong winds,” Fitzsimmons said.

“It was very volatile, very dynamic and, unfortunately, emblematic of much of the fire behaviour we’ve seen, under the hot, dry, windy conditions.”

It came amid a backdrop of growing anger at prime minister Scott Morrison’s handling of the bushfire emergency. Morrison has been criticised for his initial reluctance to link the worsening bushfire conditions with climate change, and more recently for his decision to take an overseas holiday in the midst of the crisis.

In the tiny village of Itchenstoke in the state’s Blue Mountains the defence force was mobilised to rescue residents who became isolated when fire cut off the only road in and out of the town.

Aerial footage from Bargo to the south-west of Sydney, where the three firefighters were overwhelmed, showed dozens of burning buildings and Fitzsimmons told reporters he feared dozens of properties had been lost to a separate fire burning to Sydney’s south-west.

“We’ve got indications of quite a considerable amount of property being impacted,” he said.

Australia experiences hottest day on record and its worst ever spring bushfire danger Read more

Fitzsimmons said he believed some of the homes lost belonged to firefighting volunteers.

“They’re devastated by loss no matter what, but it just goes that little further when it’s your own home, or the colleague you’ve got sitting on the fire truck next to you, having lost their home, while they’re out saving others,” he said.

“So it’s a tough afternoon. It will be another very emotional, very draining day for our firefighters.”

As Sydney again woke to a now-familiar blanket of thick smoke on Thursday, hundreds of protesters gathered at the prime minister’s official residence, Kirribilli House, angry at his perceived lack of leadership. A NSW Greens MP, David Shoebridge, was arrested at the protest for refusing to obey a move on direction by police.

But speaking after the protest the deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, dismissed their concerns, telling protesters they were “wasting your time” and that the prime minister was “entitled to a holiday”.

“Go and do something productive,” McCormack said to protesters. “Those people who are shouting and screaming … go and help someone out in need. Do a good turn rather than shouting and screaming and holding up placards that not always the words are spelt correctly on.”

Before Thursday both Berejiklian and Fitzsimmons had warned that fire crews across the scorched state would again face an “enormous challenge” in the coming days during a fire season in which six people have already died and more than 750 properties have been destroyed.

Australia’s all-time record average temperature has been broken twice already this week, with the more than 50 fires continuing to burn out of control across the state quickly fanned by temperatures exceeding 40C coupled with strong, gusting winds.

Throughout Thursday four major fires stretching from the state’s south coast to the south-west of Sydney and the central coast reached “emergency” levels. One of those blazes, at Gospers Mountain on the state’s central coast, north of Sydney, has burned through more than 400,000 hectares already.

And after a brief reprieve on Friday, conditions are expected to deteriorate further on Saturday.

“The temperatures will be higher, and the wind turbulence more severe,” Berejiklian said.

Fitzsimmons echoed that concern, saying strong winds from the west were expected for “10 to 15 hours”.

“Saturday will be a very, very difficult day,” he said.