A NSW fire officer who was dressed as Santa as part of a Christmas celebration has helped rescue an unconscious man from a burning house in the Hunter Valley.

The Telarah fire crew were on their annual Christmas lolly drop-off at Rutherford when they saw smoke coming from a house in Marlborough Street on Saturday afternoon.

"One of the guys dresses up as Santa and they run some lollies around to the kids," Inspector Michael Woodward said.

"It's done all off their own time."

However, the firefighters had to quickly turn their attention to the burning home.

They forced their way inside and found a man unconscious on the floor.

Inspector Woodward said the man was pulled from the house and extra crews were called in to battle the blaze.

"One crew made forced entry through the front door," he said.

"The house was full of smoke. They managed to rescue one male who was unconcious and extinguish a small fire."

Inspector Woodward said the man was lucky the fire crew was close by.

"If they had of been turning out from the station, it would have been another five minutes and the fire could have been considerably worse and it could have been a lot worse for that young guy," he said.

"He's very fortunate. The guys did a good job and I am very happy with what they did."

A nearby resident, Michael Johnson, said the man was very lucky to survive.

"He was out, he was unconscious," he said.

"You could hear them say... 'we're losing him'.

"But, three quarters of an hour they worked on him.

"I personally believe it was a Christmas miracle, because if these guys were not doing their lolly run, that guy would be dead."