A hole has been left in the small Liverpool Plains community, as it struggles to deal with the news Warwick Ranclaud passed away in a Sydney hospital on Saturday.

Tributes are flowing for the 36-year-old contractor, who was well-known and liked around the Spring Ridge community. 

David Cox spent time working with Mr Ranclaud, and described him as a “beautiful gentleman, who would give you the shirt off his back”.

“He would truly go out of this way to help people,” Mr Cox said.

“He will be very, very sorely missed, not only in Spring Ridge but everywhere he worked.”

Royal Hotel owner Tom Archer said Mr Ranclaud was an “incredibly hard-working man” and a “talented mechanic”.

“There wasn’t a thing he couldn’t put his hand to and not fix,” Mr Archer said.

“He was a true all rounder – he could fix anything and drive anything.

“[Spring Ridge] is still in a state of shock, everybody trying to come to terms with a person of that age losing their life.

“He was just a bloke who was always trying to help other people, that’s what he did.”

On Thursday, Mr Ranclaud was working in a front-end loader at Caroona Feedlot, when a farm vehicle that was being used to assess grazing land sparked a fire at about 5.45pm.

Mr Ranclaud rushed over to help put out the blaze, but suffered burns to 60 per cent of his body and was airlifted by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter to Royal North Shore Hospital in a critical condition.

JBS Australia, the owner of Caroona Feedlot, said the company’s focus was on supporting Mr Ranclaud’s family and the Caroona Feedlot team.

“Both are going through very difficult times,” a JBS Australia spokesperson said.

“It’s a tragedy and from a company perspective, we will continue to support family and team at Caroona through this difficult time.”

Fire investigators were deployed to the scene on Friday to investigate, and police are preparing a report for the Coroner.

WorkSafe NSW is investigating the incident and will look for any breaches of work health and safety laws in the lead up to the fire.

“SafeWork’s investigation remains ongoing,” a SafeWork NSW spokesperson said.