The damage toll from the Bemboka bushfire continues to grow after the beast was revived by very strong winds on the weekend.
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One house was confirmed lost on the weekend by the Rural Fire Service, which adds to the three homes destroyed in mid-August when this blaze first flared up.
Starting near Yankees Gap Rd, the burnt-out area has now increased to over 18,450ha, destroying swathes of national park as well as already scarce pasture and feed for livestock, and displacing countless numbers of wildlife.
While RFS crews were finally bringing the huge fire under some sort of control last week, strong north-westerly winds and gusts topping out around 100kmh on Saturday reignited the fireground and elevated the blaze to an Emergency Warning level.
READ MORE: Rolling coverage of Bemboka fire emergency
Text alerts and RFS advice sent out at 3.15pm Saturday told residents in Coopers Gully and Numbugga to seek shelter as it was too late to leave their homes.
It also saw new blazes on the south-eastern front that broke containment lines, jumped the Snowy Mountains Hwy and burnt large swathes in the Coopers Gully area.
The highway itself was closed to traffic for several hours as RFS, National Parks and Fire and Rescue NSW crews battled the flames, with motorists wishing to leave Bemboka or travelling through from the Monaro redirected along Mogilla Rd and, a little later, West Kameruka Rd to Candelo.
A cool wind change saw the fire downgraded to Watch and Act by 7pm, with the easing conditions continuing into Sunday seeing positive results.
On Sunday and Monday, the RFS air tanker assisted the relentless water bombing from helicopters by dropping fire retardant around the edges of the fire.
READ ALSO: Bombala blaze sparks up in high winds
Public liaison officer for RFS Bradley Collins said on Monday crews had been back burning to assist with containment near Yankees Gap Rd, and while some headway had been made the sheer size of the area meant there was a lot of work to do.
He said strong winds were expected on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning from the north west and north east, so the aim was to do as much work as possible before the winds began.