UPDATE FRIDAY:
Fire investigators believe the two Royal National Park fires earlier this week are linked but not suspicious.
Rural Fire Service crews had put out a blaze on Wednesday afternoon west of the Deer Park conference centre.
This blaze, which had burned almost a hectare of land close to the Hacking River, had followed a fire early on Tuesday morning in the same area.
A Grays Point resident saw two fisherman set up a camp fire on the river’s edge but it began burning uphill.
The fishermen had thought they had put out the fire before leaving the area.
NSW Police and fire investigators, who visited the scene on Thursday, believe the blaze west of the conference centre had ignited from smouldering vegetation from the fishermen’s fire.
Sutherland Shire RFS inspector Scott Deller said it was a timely reminder that camp fires during the bushfire danger period — which ends this month — should be cleared of vegetation for at least two metres.
THURSDAY STORY: NSW Police and fire investigators will try and find the cause today of the Royal National Park bushfire on Wednesday afternoon.
Rural Fire Service crews rushed to Gundamaian Road to battle the blaze west of the Deer Park conference centre.
They put out the fire after a 90-minute struggle, by laying hose through steep terrain as there was no access road.
The fire was in a similar area to another blaze on Tuesday morning.
Sutherland Shire RFS inspector Scott Deller said investigators would find out whether the two fires were connected.
‘‘We will be looking at whether the second fire was caused by the original blaze igniting or whether it was two separate fires,’’ he said.
