IT is a smoky start to the new year with two fires to the south of Port Macquarie drawing in Rural Fire Service (RFS) resources overnight on December 30.
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A fire at Juhles Mountain Road is under control and remains at advice level after it burned across 58 hectares in the Coopernook State Forest this week.
Campers in the state forest were evacuated on December 30 while fire crews assisted by aerial water bombers targeted the blaze which is burning 20km to the north-east of Taree.
A second fire at Springhill Road Coopernook is being controlled and continues to be managed by RFS crews overnight on December 31.
Read more: Military to help with Vic fire effort
Since the worse of the bushfires hit the region in early November, there has been a varying number of aircrafts calling the Taree and Port Macquarie airports home. These airports have been a location for the aircraft and crew to set down, refuel and rest overnight.
The air quality is expected to remain smoky throughout Wednesday until north to north-easterly winds pick up later in the afternoon.
"On Sunday we had a number of calls to Triple Zero for smoke sightings but they were all re-ignitions within what was known as the Kian Rd fire area (Argents Hill and Congarinni)," Supt. Ison said.
"There are no immediate threats but with this warm weather, the underlying dry conditions and the north-easterly winds, this pattern of re-ignitions will continue."
Fireboss Air Tractors, Single Engine Air Tankers (SEAT) and helicopters equipped with water dropping devices have remained in the area. There have also been large air tankers (LATs) used in the region over the last couple of months to drop fire retardant.
On the fire front, as of Monday, three aircraft are being used on the Ridge 400 fire at Woko National Park, north west of Gloucester. The fire is under control, has so far burnt out 1780 hectares and is in very dense terrain where ground crews are unable to access.
One aircraft is being used at Wattley Hill, east of Bulahdelah where the fire is under control and has burnt 150 hectares.
Aircraft also remain over Coopernook to manage the current fire affected area south of Port Macquarie.
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