Sustained showers are providing a welcome addition to firefighting efforts in Queensland and NSW as baffled crews continue to search for a stolen fire truck.

About 100 blazes are burning across the two states after a torrid week claimed more than 60 homes and thousands of hectares of farming land either side of the border.

Mild conditions are expected this weekend over the hardest-hit areas including Tara west of Brisbane and the southern border town of Wallangarra.

About 130 Victorian firefighters have arrived with another 60 expected from New Zealand and more potentially from overseas to relieve local crews.

Residents in the Jumna Dam area of Irvinebank in the southeast have been told it’s not safe to return to the area after a fire took hold about 8am.

Thieves strike in the night

Meanwhile, Queensland police are searching for two fire vehicles stolen from RFS facilities in the state’s north.

The first went missing from Sarina on Tuesday night when a group of people broke into a building, took the keys and drove off in the vehicle.

Another firefighting vehicle was stolen from an RFS facility in Victoria Plains, also in the Mackay area, on Saturday morning.

The vehicle is a black Nissan utility with Victoria Plains Rural Fire printed on the side.

Police said it has since been seen in the Sarina area.

Queensland Police Minister Mark Ryan said the theft of fire equipment during the current threat period was appalling.

“It beggars belief that people could behave in this manner,” he said.

“Real Queenslanders support each other. These grubs attack those who selflessly dedicate themselves to protecting their fellow Queenslanders,” he said.

‘Absolute insult’

Acting Assistant Commissioner Glen Pointing said the thefts were “an absolute insult”.

“I just don’t understand these actions, particularly at a time when half the state is on fire,” he said.

In NSW, an initial 200 tonnes of emergency feed arrived in Tenterfield after a ring of fire scorched most of the area’s minimal fodder.

Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty said 51 requests for fodder had been received in addition to five for emergency stock water and two for animal assessment.

“This is in addition to 207 tonnes of emergency fodder that was distributed to fire-affected landholders in the Kempsey area last month,” she said on Friday.

She encouraged primary producers to report damage through the Natural Disaster Damage Survey to ensure the government understood the severity and distribution of the damage and could target resources appropriately.

NSW’s far southeast is the only corner of the state experiencing high fire danger on Saturday.

There were 52 fires burning across the state with 14 not contained as of 9am.

All fires are at an advice level, with more than 350 firefighters deployed.

Possible thunderstorms across much of NSW and inland Queensland later on Saturday could change fire conditions with large hail and damaging wind gusts expected near the Queensland border.

West Australia braces for more flames

High fire danger is expected in Perth on Saturday amid predictions of 37C and gusts of up to 85km/h about the hills.

An emergency warning is in place in parts of North Dandalup and western parts of Myara south of Perth.

A threat to life and homes warning was issued about 11am.

Extreme fire danger is forecast for the Swan Inland regions, as well as further afield in the inland central west, lower west inland and Mortlock regions.

A risk of dry lightning is possible during isolated thunderstorms expected to develop inland on Saturday afternoon.

It comes after a homeless man was charged with five counts of arson after allegedly lighting a series of bushfires in Perth’s inner suburbs on Thursday.

In the Northern Territory, 8400 residents in Humpty Doo are among those subject to a heatwave warning this weekend.

-AAP