And more than half of them (27) come from the Young Shire.

Last Thursday the Rural Fire Service SWS Zone sent five tankers to Lithgow with a crew of 18 firefighters from Young, Boorowa, Cootamundra and Harden brigades. 

The tankers currently remain at Lithgow with the RFS rotating their crews on three-day deployments. 

The latest crew - which included 11 Young firefighters, most on their second deployment – was dispatched from the Young RFS Station in  Rockdale Road for another three-day run on Tuesday night.

“On all accounts our crews are doing an exceptional job with property protection and back burning operations,” RFS SWS Zone district manager Andrew Dillon said.

“Three staff including myself have been deployed to incident management teams at Bulga and the Mittagong fire,” he said.

“It is likely that our staff will be rotated over the next two weeks to assist further with coordination in and around Sydney.”

Young volunteer firefighter Patrick Vincent is currently on his second deployment in Lithgow. He will be returning home tomorrow.

He’s been involved with a couple of back burns in the area but has been mostly doing property protection.

“The conditions are windy, cold, hot … it’s tiring during the day and long hours,” he said.

“While we were setting up for property protection in Bells Line Of Road we could see spot fires everywhere.”

Spot fires are caused from flying sparks or embers igniting at a distance from the main fire.

Despite the big job, Patrick said his fellow firefighters have been in “excellent” spirit.

Local firefighters are battling blazes for eight to 10 hours a day with two to three breaks, during which they refill their tankers with water.

Nationals Member for Burrinjuck Katrina Hodgkinson has paid tribute to the outstanding contribution RFS volunteers from across the Burrinjuck electorate have made to the fires.

“Since the state of emergency was declared last Thursday, brigades and strike forces from across the Burrinjuck electorate have been deployed widely across the state,” Ms Hodgkinson said.

“Many of these volunteers have now returned to the electorate, and thankfully I have been reassured today that none of them has sustained any injuries to date, despite the dangerous nature of their work.”

Ms Hodgkinson said the Burrinjuck electorate started the year with a catastrophic fire danger warning and devastating bushfires swept through several areas of the electorate, particularly near Yass and Boorowa.

“During those fires, brave and dedicated RFS volunteers were deployed into this area to help local crews battle the flames,” she said.

“Our firies are now gratefully returning the favour and they deserve our stoutest support for their willingness to leave behind their work, family and friends to help save life and property right across NSW.

“Their dedication to protecting the people of NSW is magnificent and inspiring and I congratulate them on the fantastic job they are doing.”