A large black smoke cloud on Tuesday morning (September 10) was the result of spot fires in melaleuca or paperbark trees, according to RFS district officer Stuart Robb.

"The fire is still within containment lines, there is no risk to properties at this time," said Mr Robb.

"It was putting up some smoke this morning because it's burning in areas with paperbark and oily tea trees.

"It's still set well within containment and there's a southerly wind blowing south-south-westerly which is about 40 kmph.

"This is creating a little bit more smoke, which we expect to die down as the winds subside.

"We have crews as well as aircraft working on (the fire) over the next couple of days as we see an easing of conditions."

The fire has been burning continually since it started on July 18, fueled by areas of rotting underground vegetation known as peat.

RFS and the Port Macquarie-Hastings Council have since joined forces to flood the area with 30 megalitres of reclaimed water, which began flowing on September 2.

"The reclaimed water pipeline has been operating over the last seven days," said Mr Robb.

"We're only in week one, about four megalitres into the exercise, and the monitoring is starting on the level of water in the area.

"We expect to see that monitoring information coming in around the end of the week."

High winds and rising temperatures not usually seen in spring are contributing to challenging conditions for firefighters on the Mid-North Coast.

"Across Port Macquarie, Hastings and Mid Coast we are looking at 13 fires - which is a lot for this time of year," said Mr Robb.

"Usually we would have one or two calls a day this time of year, on the extreme fire day last week (September 6) we had 21 bush and grass fires.

"The weather patterns that we are seeing at the moment are making the conditions much more difficult. It's only six days into spring and we have had 32 degree temperatures and 60kmph strong winds.

"Weather conditions are going to ease in the coming days but we are going to see higher temperatures towards the weekend.

"We can't stress enough that people have a bushfire plan and stay up to date with the conditions."

Mr Robb said around seven of the 13 bushfires are being investigated to determine if they were deliberately lit.

"There is potential that a number of these fires are deliberately lit," he said.

"It is a concern if people are out there lighting fires deliberately because in these extreme conditions there is a risk that someone can be hurt, property destroyed or lives lost."

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