Black Wednesday

Fuelled by gusts up to 100 kms/hour a fire has broken its containment line in the Blue Mountains and is threatening towns.

One spot fire is five kilometres north of Linden and is worrying firefighters. The other five kilometres north of Hazelbrook has been brought under control. The spot breakouts are ahead of a major aggressive front within the Grose Valley and fire fighters feared it could hit the towns within hours if not been brought under control.

Communities across the country have been told to prepare for the worst as firefighters in three states struggle to control a series of bushfires, a number of which have already broken containment lines.

Towns in NSW, Victoria and South Australia were warned that they could be under threat today, with a combination of fierce winds and possible storms expected to prove dangerous.

"Overnight [the fire] did break a containment line on the eastern perimeter, and extended a couple of kilometres to the east," the Katoomba Rural Fire Service incident controller, Mal Cronstedt, said.

"It's probably five kilometres southwest of Mt Tomah, and about five kilometres away from Blackheath, so [there's] no direct threat to those areas at the moment, but the concern is with the difficult weather conditions today," said a Rural Fire Service spokeswoman, Meeka Bailey.

"If we get strong southwest winds then Mt Tomah could be an issue; if we get the strong northwest winds then the middle mountains could be an issue, from Hazelbrook to Falconbridge," she said.

"But in general we're just telling all communities in that area to be prepared because there could be quite variable winds."