Rural Fire Service (RFS) district officer, Stuart Robb, said there were 20 fires currently burning across the region and the hot, dry conditions would continue until we received significant rain.

"We've still got a number of months to go before the end of summer," he said.

"The area still remains at risk because of the dry conditions."

Most recently, RFS personnel had been working to ensure properties around Thunderbolts Way at Giro remained protected in the likely instance the Rumba Complex fire and the Ridge 400 fire merged.

Both fires are currently listed at advice level.

Mr Robb said an estimated 35 per cent of the MidCoast LGA had been burnt this bushfire season, and while the areas that had already seen significant fire activity were less at risk, there was still the need for people to remain vigilant and to have a bushfire survival plan in place.

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He also provided some perspective on the hazard reduction burn debate that was currently playing out on a national scale.

He said hazard reduction burning procedures were thoroughly managed by the Bushfire Risk Management Committee and all efforts were made to execute hazard reduction burns, subject to weather conditions being suitable.

"The challenge is the bushfire season is getting longer and the hazard reduction burning season is getting shorter.

"Our first fire (the Lindfield Park Road fire at Port Macquarie) started on July 18, which is when we'd usually be doing hazard reduction burns.

"And the reality is we had fires burn through areas that had been hazard reduced only 12-18 months before, which is unheard of."

Mr Robb said there was a small but important upside to the devastation the region had experienced over the past few months, and that was that people were better prepared for future bushfire events.

"There's a higher level of preparedness than I've seen previously," he said.

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