Catastrophic bushfire conditions in New South Wales Australia

I got wind of an extreme and catastrophic bushfire situation in New South Wales, Australia from a friend of mine. It is high summer in New South Wales and I understand that it has been very hot. I spent a little time to check things out for you and this is what I learned.

According to a media release (dated February 12, 2017) from the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS):

NSW has experienced its most dangerous day of bush fire conditions ever. 

Catastrophic fire danger conditions have been recorded on Sunday 12 February 2017 in a number of locations across the Hunter, Central Ranges and Upper Central West Plains.

Late on February 13th (remember they are a day ahead of us here in America) the NSW RFS issued a media release with an intitial damage assessment of a few bush fires that resulted in property damage. That is according to this initial assessment, 30 homes were destroyed and five were damaged. For more see this February 13th media release from NSW RFS.

Skynews Australia reported late in the evening on February 13th that:

More than 2500 firefighters fought more than 200 bush and grass fires over the weekend with areas in the central west the worst hit. 

More than 70 fires were still burning on Monday afternoon including 26 uncontained blazes.

The New South Wales Rural Fire Service has an excellent website with updated bush fire information that may be found here as well as pages on facebook and twitter.

Additional information from media outlets:
ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) updated February 14th with video
BBC News - Australia (February 12th)
The Guardian - Australia (February 12th)