Emergency services are bracing for the return of heatwave conditions on Saturday that could potentially reignite the coalfields.
Rural Fire Service, NSW Fire and Rescue and National Parks spent the Friday extinguishing about 600 hectares of smouldering scrub and creating containment lines around Kurri, Abermain and Weston.
"We are confident that we have completed the ground work and we now have some aerial work to do to ensure that internal burn is extinguished in preparation for tomorrow's (Saturday) weather," Rural Fire Service Lower Hunter Zone District Manager Martin Siemsen said.
"Tomorrow will be a total fire ban with similar conditions as yesterday, which is obviously a concern for us if we have fire in the landscape."
"We want to make sure that we get the messaging out to the community surrounding this fire and also, as a preparatory measure, those communities further to the south to ensure they are prepared for tomorrow's conditions."
Superintendent Siemsen said fire crews had worked as a team to save as much property as possible and, more importantly, life, as the Lower Hunter went up in flames on Thursday afternoon.
"I couldn't be more proud of our team from the fireground up to the incident management team. It's one team but many players," he said.
"We pushed out the alerts and warnings the best we could based on the information that we had.
The RFS confirmed that one firefighter was treated in hospital for a heat-related illness.
"The firefighters on the ground and the air crews did an amazing job," Superintendent Siemsen said.
"They were very serious fire conditions yesterday. To have that happen to us in the local community and not to be talking about loss of life, that is pretty good."
Thursday's fire broke out about 2pm and developed extremely quickly around Charles Street Abermain.
"It started to spot in front of itself and developed into quite a large fire. It quickly spread to Truscott Street and impacted homes there," Superintendent Siemsen said.
Authorities are yet to determine how the blaze, which occurred exactly six years after a similar fire, started.
"Police and RFS fire investigators are investigating the fire and we will have a better understanding of how it started in the next 12 to 24 hours," Superintendent Siemsen said.
He said crews were well-prepared for the fire season.
"All fire authorities and agencies do fire preparation throughout the year. The welfare of our firefighters is number one to us," Superintendent Siemsen said.
"This close to Christmas our thoughts go out to those that lost property, Superintendent Siemsen said.
Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib said, following the RFS assessment, the state government would work with the federal government to determine if the fire qualified as a natural disaster.
A natural disaster declaration would trigger the release of funding.
"We saw a really good example of that in Bega about a month and a half ago where very quickly we were able to get those supports. We set up a couple of evacuation centres, Service NSW people were there to assist," he said.
"We are coming into Christmas, people need this to be a good time. We'll do everything that we can to make sure that even if people are struggling, to make sure that they don't struggle too much."
