NSW firefighters are "giving their all" to contain large and complex bushfires before conditions worsen amid forecast high temperatures and dry winds.
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The re-elevated fire risk comes as the state's emergency services minister goes on a family holiday overseas, with Counter Terrorism and Corrections Minister Anthony Roberts acting in the role from Friday.
David Elliott, who postponed the break once previously, said he will continue to receive two briefings each day from the RFS.
"If the bushfire situation should demand it, I will return home without hesitation," Mr Elliott said in a statement on Friday.
His comments follow criticism of Prime Minister Scott Morrison who returned from an overseas holiday before Christmas as the bushfire crisis worsened back home.
After a devastating end to last week - with two firefighters killed and as many as 100 NSW houses destroyed - firefighters have taken advantage of milder conditions to strengthen containment lines.
Almost 1300 were in the field on Friday as 70 bush and grass blazes continued to burn, with more than 30 yet to be contained.
RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said firefighters had been doing challenging work in areas like the Blue Mountains and NSW south coast.
They had been establishing containment lines with hand tools and machinery, along with extensive backburning, Mr Fitzsimmons told the Seven Network.
"Because these fires are large, they're complex and they're very prone to the elements, once these weather conditions turn around, we know we're going to see increased fire activity," he said on Friday.
Blue Mountains City Council mayor Mark Greenhill said this year's extended bushfire season meant locals were living with stress for a long time.
The area continues to be impacted by the Ruined Castle fire and Grose Valley fire, which has spread from the Gospers Mountain mega-blaze to the north.
The Green Wattle Creek fire to the south may also pose a threat in the future, Mr Greenhill said, adding the community was "far from out of the woods".
"(I'm) super impressed with the strategic work of the incident management team in the Blue Mountains ... but obviously we've got weeks and weeks ahead of difficulty. This is a marathon, not a sprint," he told AAP on Friday.
While recovery efforts have begun in suburbs including Mount Wilson, Mount Toma and Bell, Mr Greenhill said a longer-term recovery would need to be undertaken, with specific reference to community trauma.
"There are people who went through very, very difficult times in 2013 for whom this must bring back a lot, that worries me greatly," Mr Greenhill said.
"So there's got to be a long-term discussion about recovery and what it means quite broadly ... for the whole community this is a very stressful, long endurance episode for them, it just goes on and on."
Even in calmer times there were flare-ups, Mr Greenhill said, including in recent days around Katoomba Airfield, Blackheath and Mount Victoria.
The Bureau of Meteorology, meanwhile, expects the fire danger to get worse into the new week amid increasing heat and winds.
Temperatures on Tuesday are forecast to reach maximums of 43C in Penrith, 35C in Katoomba, 40C in Picton, 36C in Griffith and 40C in Mudgee.
Mr Fitzsimmons said the RFS was not expecting earlier catastrophic conditions to return, but firefighters and communities would be challenged.
"It's certainly going to be another tough period with temperatures up into the 40s, very dry air, very low humidity and the winds turning back around from the west and the northwest," he told the ABC.
Total fire bans will be in place for Saturday for the Monaro alpine, southern ranges and southern slopes fire regions. These regions will also be under very high fire danger, along with seven others.
Australian Associated Press