Berry NSW Fire and Rescue member Luke Bramley has recounted being part of Strike Team Zulu which has just returned from deployment to the horrific northern NSW fires.

FRNSW personnel from the Southern Region spent seven days battling the fires.

The 13-member team had personnel from Berry, Ulladulla, Batemans Bay, Narooma, Bega, Eden, over the Highlands from Moss Vale and Bundanoon and as far south-west as Corowa, Wagga and Junee.

They provided property protection, monitored back burns and evacuated residents from fire impact areas in the northern rivers area.

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In extremely difficult conditions on Tuesday, the crews were heavily impacted by a fire front but stood their ground and defended houses.

A total of 80 homes were under threat with only one dwelling lost.

The strike team leader was Inspector Craig Mashman from Batemans Bay.

Mr Bramley said it was a long seven days, with the crews working 16-hour days.

"It was long and hard but I feel for the RFS guys who are up there," he said.

"They have been fighting these fires for three months.

"They are exhausted. Their resources are fully stretched. You've got to remember theses are volunteers."

He said in 17 years as part of Station 224 Berry he has never faced a fire with such ferocity as last Tuesday.

"I went to Black Saturday the night after it came through," he said. "That was just so quick, and worked at Tathra, but the ferocity of this was incredible.

"It wasn't the size of the fire it was the ferocity.

"We were tasked with protecting Ashby and Ashby Heights on Tuesday, right on the Clarence River and we had the township of Maclean on the other side of the river.

"As the firefront came towards us I'd never seen anything like that.

"We were trying to save homes but also ensuring people had evacuated. People were told three or four days prior this was coming but still left it late to get out.

"It's still a major active fire. The Nial Creek fire started many kilometres away from where it is now - it has virtually burnt to the coast. It's a massive area."

In the days prior they undertook a major backburning operation on the Summerland Way between Casino and Grafton.

"We backburned around the town of Whiporie, just in case of possible changes and that worked," he said.

"I've never really done much backburning before, it was fascinating to see and hear the strategies, the procedures and support from the air and fire control centre."

He said a typical day started at 8am with a briefing, before the crew was given its deployments for the day.

"The Army Reserve were up there and prepared lunches and snacks for us, we'd grab that and head out for the day. Quite often it was 11pm before we were back," he said.

The strike team returned home on Thursday and has been replaced by another local contingent.

The Shoalhaven has had a number of personnel up north battling the fires, from people on the ground, through to Shoalhaven RFS Inspector Mark Williams who has been an incident controller.

Closer to home and crews from the Culburra Beach Rural Fire Brigade headed south to assist at the Currowan fires.

Firefighter Warrick Freeman captured some amazing images of what the crews faced down there.