Entire Blue Mountains area could come under threat: RFS The entire Blue Mountains may come under threat over the coming week if weather conditions deteriorate as predicted, the commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service said. Shane Fitzsimmons said forecast conditions were ""a whole new ball game"" and authorities would force evacuations if lives were at risk. He said fire prediction charts showed there would be a significant impact on populated areas should forecasts materialise. Residents of the Blue Mountain's town Bell have been advised to leave their homes now if they are not prepared after an emergency warning was issued on Sunday morning for the State Mine Fire. The communities of Mount Tomah and Berambing have also been told to get out get out urgently and go to Richmond. Others, like those in Bilpin Village, can choose to stay but could be cut off from power and telecommunication for several days. People in Mount Irvine and Mount Wilson have been told it is too late to leave. After attending a briefing with the Premier Barry O'Farrell and the Bureau of Meteorology on Sunday morning Commissioner Fitzsimmons said the RFS would start broadcasting information on contingency plans to large areas of at-risk communities from later in the the day. The RFS were expecting the Mount Victoria fire to affect northern areas of Blackheath this afternoon, while Katoomba and Leura would likely come under threat in the coming days. There was also a good chance new fires would ignite in the coming days, Commissioner Fitzsimmons said. ""We are expecting hot temperatures [in the] high 20s and moving up into the 30s as the days progress,"" he said. Wind gusts of 60 kilometres per hour were expected during with week, with peaks of between 70 and 100 kilometres per hour, he said. Communities needed to prepare for a wide-scale impact everywhere from the Bells Line of Road and Bilpin to towns that sit further down the mountain such as Kurrajong and Richmond. Mr O'Farrell said the state was in for ""challenging days ahead"." He said plans were in place, particularly in and around the Blue Mountains, to ask people, particularly in fringe areas, to leave their homes for their safety. ""Undoubtedly that will cause distress to those people, it may cause some wider controversy but it is clear that at time like this it is better to be safe than sorry,"" he said. Commissioner Fitzsimmons acknowledged evacuations would be controversial, but the preservation of life was the highest priority. ""[We'll be] looking to secure and protect as much property where we can,"" he said. ""I would much rather be apologising for inconvenience in a few days than dealing with some extraordinary devastation and despair as a result of the fires that are likely to develop over the coming days,"" he said. More than 60 fires are still burning around the state, four of which are not contained. ""On one fire alone we have more than 37,000 hectare of country that has been burned,"" he said. Total fire bans are in place across the greater Sydney region, the Hunter, the Illawarra and Shoalhaven area and the Central Ranges.