Strike teams of bushfire fighters will be strategically placed across the Hunter on Saturday, with weather predicted to push well past 40 degrees and a NSW-wide state of emergency declared.
A total fire ban is in place across the state, with a severe fire danger rating for the Greater Hunter for the first half of the weekend.
Hunter Rural Fire Service spokesperson Leanne Bell told the Newcastle Herald special "strike teams" of crews would be on standby ready to respond to any blazes that broke out or flared up in the horror conditions.
She said Port Stephens, Cessnock, Bulga, Muswellbrook, Denman and Rothbury - which would keep an eye on the area into Maitland - would be among the locations where the teams would be based on Saturday.
Ms Bell said the RFS had been working on containment lines at two fires on Friday - the blaze at Kerrys Ridge west of Bulga and the Mount Royal fire north of Dungog.
"Crews have been working hard with heavy plant and aerial support to ensure that the containment lines we've put in have not got fire in them," she said.
"We put a lot of effort into the edges of those containment lines."
A community meeting was held at the Jerrys Plains hall on Friday night to discuss the expectations for Saturday.
RFS members have also been door-knocking and leaving information leaflets in letterboxes, particularly in areas such as around Dungog where a lack of mobile phone reception means people are likely not to receive emergency warning text messages.
All fires in the Hunter Region, including new blazes that appeared at Charmhaven and Wangi Wangi this week, were listed as being at advice level on Friday afternoon.
"We've been going through this now in this area for six weeks," Ms Bell said.
"Residents should be well aware where they need to go to get information, but it's the tourists who probably need to have a look at where they are - know where safer locations are and not be driving around in the bush [on Saturday] but sticking to the beach."
The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted Saturday's top temperatures to be 45 degrees at Singleton, 44 at Cessnock, 43 at Maitland, 38 at Newcastle and low 30s at Port Stephens and Lake Macquarie.
A drop is forecast for Sunday, with maximum temperatures expected to remain in the 20s across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Port Stephens and the Lower Hunter areas.
Saturday's tough conditions come after a devastating several days for Victoria and the NSW south coast, where thousands were forced to flee their homes.
The ongoing bushfire crisis gripping NSW has claimed the lives of eight people in the past week, pushing the death toll since July to 16.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian declared a state of emergency across NSW on Thursday, which came into force on Friday and will last for seven days.
It is the third time Ms Berejiklian has taken such action in the past two months.
The initial occasion, in catastrophic fire conditions on November 12, was the first time a state of emergency had been declared in NSW since 2013.
The declaration transfers certain government powers to RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons, including the authority to direct government agencies and control resources, evacuate people, close roads, shut down essential utilities and enter private properties during the course of emergency response efforts.
"Declaring this state of emergency is vital to the safety of communities in NSW as we face the most devastating bushfire season in living memory," Ms Berejiklian said.
NSW Health issued a warning for people to take precautions against deteriorating air quality and rising temperatures expected for Saturday.
The warning urged people who suffer from asthma to carry their medication and for the general public to avoid the risk factors of heat stroke.
Meanwhile the Fire Brigade Employees Union is calling for at least 400 extra firefighters to be employed across NSW to meet the everyday workload of Fire and Rescue NSW, given the level of resources being taken up by the ongoing bushfire disaster.
The union would not be specific about how many more firefighters it wants employed in the Hunter.
"We need the premier to announce more firefighters," said Leighton Drury, the union's state secretary.
"That's what the people of NSW want and need. We signed up to serve.
"Let us do that and give us more firefighters to do it with."
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