Live: Crews battle bushfire emergencies in Blue Mountains, Newcastle - ABC Online (blog)

Updated October 23, 2013 17:58:35

There are currently two emergency warnings in place as extreme weather conditions whip up bushfires across New South Wales.

One warning is in place at Gateshead, near Dudley and Redhead, at Newcastle. The nearby blaze at Minmi has been downgraded to a watch-and-act alert after earlier being at emergency level.

The Minmi Public School was evacuated and the northbound lanes on the Pacific Motorway are closed.

The other emergency warning is for the Linksview Road fire at Springwood in the Blue Mountains, with a number of crews being relocated to try and bring the blaze under control.

Residents in Faulconbridge have been warned of immediate danger and have been told to seek shelter.

There are also three watch-and-act alerts in place for the State Mine fire near Lithgow, the Mount Victoria fire, and the Hall Road fire near Wollondilly.

Follow our live blog for updates on the situation throughout the day.

Topics: bushfire, fires, disasters-and-accidents, emergency-incidents, emergency-planning, lithgow-2790, nsw, bilpin-2758, springwood-2777, winmalee-2777, newcastle-2300

First posted October 23, 2013 06:17:24