The 3000 residents of Tenant Creek have been urged to “stay calm” as authorities seek special powers to manage the 10,000 sq km blaze.

An Emergency Situation – a step below a statewide State of Emergency – has been declared for the Barkly local government area.

NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said he was confident the town would not need to be evacuated and the declaration was precautionary for public safety.

“We’ve been working tirelessly at putting brakes in place … to make sure there’s a significant line of defence around Tennant Creek to stop fire encroaching on the town,” he said on Tuesday.

“There are some fallback contingencies… (but) evacuations are not going to occur.”

Murphy said though the fire was “fairly uncontrolled”, Tenant Creek residents would be safe but the next 48 hours would be critical.

Three water bombers able to dump 3000 litres of water at a time are stationed in Tenant Creek.

The Barkly Highway has been intermittently closed since the blaze began on September 6, and smoky conditions on the Stuart Highway could cause closures as well.

Deputy Chief Minister Nicole Manison said parents should go to work and send their kids to school, despite the lurking threat.

“The message is to be calm and business as usual,” she said.

“But again because of the unusual size of this firefront, we just want to be prepared for worst-case situations as well.

“We would just like to have a few more tools in the toolbox to make sure we’re ready to act very swiftly if we need.”

SA Police Minister Joe Scakacs said on Tuesday afternoon that BushfiresNT had asked South Australia for help and that 20 Country Fire Service personnel will travel to Tennant Creek tomorrow.

The contingent includes two strike teams and a field liaison officer as well as an SA Ambulance Service paramedics.

“Large fires are not uncommon to the Northern Territory, although a fire of such size and ferocity at this time of year is confronting and profound and I want every individual affected to know that they are in South Australia’s thoughts,” Szacaks said.

The Australian Defence Force has also moved into Tenant Creek to help with firefighting efforts.

The fire began as two blazes and merged into one over the weekend, lurking 30km from the town on Tuesday morning.

Residents said much of the smoke had cleared overnight, though some people were still evacuating.

“This has been a remarkable fire situation given the size of the front and the weather conditions have been frankly working against us,” Manison said.

-with AAP