At the Minmi Hotel near Newcastle, kitchen manager Sharon Wilson is wielding a hose and fighting off ash and embers from a nearby fire.
The blaze, around Stockrington Road west of the M1, has closed the motorway linking Sydney and Brisbane and caused the evacuation on Wednesday of two schools.
Crews are working to protect homes and authorities and residents have been advised to seek shelter from the fire.
Children have been evacuated from Minmi Public School and the Bishop Tyrell Anglican College.
Ms Wilson described conditions as "crazy".
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She and her colleagues have been holed up inside the hotel awaiting instructions from firefighters.
"We've been spraying the pub down and the grass around it," she told AAP.
"There's a lot of embers and ash flying over us.
"We have the police and firies all watching. So if we do have to evacuate, they'll come and tell us."
The Minmi fire is one of two in the area that have been given the highest emergency rating by the Rural Fire Service (RFS).
Another fire, south of Newcastle in Gateshead, also became subject to an emergency warning after threatening the suburbs of Redhead and Dudley.
At Redhead School, 15 students were being cared for in the school hall after parents were asked not to pick them up because of the fire hazard on the road.
Ausgrid says about 450 homes in the Hunter region lost power as a result of bushfires in the area.
A fire at Rusty Lane has cut power to 380 homes and businesses in Branxton while about 60 properties around Lenaghans Drive are without power as a result of the Stockrington Road fire.
The RFS later said a separate fire had broken out near Newcastle and forced the partial closure of the Pacific Highway.
A watch and act warning is in place for the fire on Elizabeth St at Raymond Terrace.
The Pacific Highway at Heatherbrae is closed northbound, but southbound lanes are open.
RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said the fire was close to where another major blaze at Heatherbrae was burning only days ago.
He said only a small amount of bush was alight and it was not posing an immediate threat to properties.
The fire has burnt through six hectares.
The Maitland Mercury newspaper says there's a fire burning on both sides of the Kindy Patch childcare centre at Medowie in the Port Stephens area.
Macquarie Radio reports all the children at the centre are ok.
