KEY POINTS:
SYDNEY - Fire crews plan to make the most of easing winds and cooler temperatures in NSW today as they work to bring under control two major bushfires.
On just the first day of the bushfire season, more than 230 firefighters and three water-bombing aircraft yesterday battled
fires near Mt Kuringai, north of Sydney, and another near Port Stephens, north of Newcastle.
Authorities are investigating whether arsonists are behind the blazes which claimed one home in the village of Salt Ash and damaged others in Oyster Cove, near Port Stephens.
NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) spokesman Murray Hillan today said firefighters had taken advantage of calmer, cooler night-time conditions to entrench measures for controlling the blazes.
"The night has been very much about putting in containment lines ... and then to strengthen them so we've got some depth into them so we can try and get as much control over (the fires) before the hot weather comes again today," Mr Hillan said.
The fire near Port Stephens, which forced the evacuation of residents at Oyster Cove, was burning through 300 hectares of bushland, he said.
Temperatures nudging 30 degrees combined with strong westerly winds made life difficult yesterday in the rugged terrain of Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, north of Sydney, where 130 firefighters battled to establish control lines over an area of about 140 hectares.
About 60 campers were moved out of the national park's Basin Reserve camping area, which lay in the path of the fire.
With lower fire activity expected today, the fire crews will concentrate on the southern side of the blaze, burning through hazard reduction areas off some of the walking trails, Mr Hillan said.
"(We're expecting) low fire activity; we've not got high winds or high temperatures expected, so it's pretty much what we've been doing overnight during the daytime," he said.
Newly appointed NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said today the cause of the fires was "highly suspicious".
"There were five or six separate ignitions ... you can only draw the conclusion that they are highly suspicious and we are working with our fire investigators and police to follow up the cause of those fires," he told the Nine Network.
- AAP