The Hunter arm of the Rural Fire Service (FRS) is urging everyone to have a fire plan ready to go with hot and dry conditions ahead likely to make fires burn with more intensity and speed.
Due to the current and predicted weather conditions, the RFS are also suspending all fire permits from the 1st October in a bid to stop the potential for fires, even burnt safely, from getting out of hand.
Inspector Martin Siemsen says the season has started early this year with elevated fire conditions the past week and there's expected to be dry, hot and unfavourable conditions this weekend as well.
He says they're ensuring they take every precaution they can to limit the number of calls out to fires.
"So this weekend we've got an indicator that we could well and truly be into elevated fire dangers so we're talking about very high to potentially into the severe category."
The fire permits will be suspended for areas in the Lower Hunter including Port Stephens, Cessnock, Dungog and Maitland.
"We need to watch out for people in the general community and people need to be aware of what the fire danger ratings mean, they need to be aware of what that means for them in relation to whether they live in a bushfire prone area or near a bushfire prone area and they need to make decisions," said Inspector Seimsen.
A Total Fire Ban could be on the cards this weekend.
"As of the 1st October to the 31st March we have a Bush Fire Danger Period that's implemented in the state of NSW... that will start 1st October but due to the continued dry conditions and the elevated temperatures that we're seeing and weather conditions in general so we decided to suspended the issue of permits," said Inspector Seimsen.
Information about Total Fire Ban declarations is published at www.rfs.nsw.gov.au .Locals can also call the Lower Hunter Fire Control Centre on 4015 0000 or the Bushfire Information Line on 1800 NSW RFS (1800 679 737).
