The Snowy Valleys Council, Forestry Corporation of NSW and the RFS control centre have all been affected by the incident at the Riverina Highlands building on Capper street in Tumut.

A component failure in the building's geo-thermal air conditioning system is reported to have occurred on Saturday evening above the forestry corp office on the second floor.

The damage was discovered on Sunday afternoon, with the water having leaked into the RFS operations centre, causing the ceiling to collapse.

Riverina Highlands RFS district coordinator Peter Jones said his offices will most likely be gutted due to the extent of the damages.

"Basically, we had a swimming pool in our operations room this morning," he said.

"I can't see us realistically being back in that building before Christmas again, the water has gone into every office, so all the carpets have to come up and a lot of stuff has been damaged."

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Mr Jones has estimated the cost of damages to electronic equipment alone to be approximately $100,000 - $200,000.

"In the operations room itself, which has got all of our communication hubs, they've actually been impacted by water as well," he said.

"So they've got to be looked at and checked, and we've also lost photocopiers and smart boards."

The Riverina Highlands RFS plans to continue operating through the Wagga offices, but phones currently remain down while caller diversions are organised between control centres.

Mr Jones said while the risk of a severe fire season is seemingly low, the Riverina Highlands RFS would still manage to communicate normally if a fire were to occur.

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