‘We’re trapped’: Firefighters frantic call from inferno

STRETCHED firefighters faced increasingly challenging conditions after a southerly changed moved across the NSW coast on Friday night.

Emergency radio has captured the terrifying moment a group of five brave RFS volunteers were cornered by a blaze and rendered immobile in the Taree region of the mid north coast.

Five firefighters narrowly escaped after they were surrounded by three fire fronts and could not move their truck because of a fallen tree.

In a desperate call to the radio operator, firefighters said they were "trapped by fire in all directions" after a southerly moved through at 7.50pm.

It is not known precisely which of the 16 out of control fires which were burning on the mid north coast the firefighters were trapped by.

They told the radio operator they were trying to retreat away before they got stuck.

"That's a negative-- we have been trapped by a falling tree, over," the desperate firefighter told the operator.

They then prepared to pull down the protective shutters and wait for the fire to pass over them.

"You have got all your protection gear in your vehicle? Your curtains and... sprinklers on and let us know how you're going," the operator said before trying to call in support for the truck.

"Copy that we are engaging protection."

But as the fire was about to hit, they managed to drive over the collapsed tree at the last minute.

"We are still getting out of the way of the fire and heading back to Apple something or rather Rd."

"We have had to drive over the tree."