An independent inquiry into the devastating Black Summer bushfire season will deliver its progress report to best prepare NSW ahead of the next bushfire season.
Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib said the memory of the catastrophic summer months of 2019 and 2020 "still hangs very heavy for all of us" as he promised the government would table a progress report on the inquiry.
"We won't forget the 2019 and 2020 fire season for all of the damage that it did, the loss of life, the loss of property and the loss of livelihoods," he told parliament during question time on Thursday.
Mr Dib said whilst important headway has been made, there still remains a "very significant body of work that's outstanding".
"Of the 148 recommendations and sub recommendations 68 per cent have been completed and the remaining 32 per cent are in progress," he said.
Three recommendations - including communicating hazard reduction priorities for local communities - are currently overdue by 21 months.
"Hazard reduction is not where it needs to be," Mr Dib said.
The government will deliver on the outstanding recommendations to ensure the state is "prepared as possible" should it face another Black Summer.
Prolonged wet conditions over the past 18 months have created the ideal growing conditions for pasture and crops, which has subsequently increased the risk of significant grass fires over the upcoming summer, the minister said.
"This is a significant concern that areas of large bushland area adjacent to major urban areas that were not affected by the recent bushfires have now even higher fuel loads."
Local bushfire management proposed more than 320,000 hectares of hazard reduction work ahead of the coming bushfire season.
But between July 2022 and March this year, fire agencies and land managers have only been able to prepare or treat 13,000 hectares in terms of hazard reduction.
Mr Dib said work has been accelerated over the past three months.
"Agencies now have managed to treat an additional up to 66,000 hectares - that's a massive increase of 338 per cent over the past three months," he said.
In preparation for the coming summer the NSW Rural Fire Service has also expanded the use of multipurpose firefighting helicopters and said it was committed to confining 80 per cent of fires to within a 10 hectare radius.
