A second suspicious fire has caused extensive damage to Sylvania Fruit World this morning.
Shortly after 4am, emergency services were called to on the Princes Highway at Gymea after reports the building was well alight.
Officers from Fire & Rescue NSW attended and were able to extinguish the blaze.
Several residents of nearby buildings had to be evacuated during the operation and the Princes Highway was closed for a short time to allow emergency services access to the premises.
Police from Sutherland Local Area Command established a crime scene and the premises remained under guard.
This morning fire investigators and police detectives conducted an inspection of the premises which were extensively damaged by the fire.
In April another fire caused moderate damage and that fire is still under investigation.
Inspector Michael Merrett said the fruit market has sustained more damage in this morning’s fire and the cause of the fire is not yet known.
“Because of the nature of it we are now conducting further investigations,” Inspector Merrett said.
“We have a Fire and Rescue fire investigation unit on the scene and NSW crime scene officers as well.
“Both those units are working together conducting further investigations into identifying the cause of the fire.
“At this stage I’d have to say it is [suspicious] and we are obviously treating it that way. Anytime we have a fire at a premises with an unidentified cause we’ll always treat that as suspicious.
“It’s done a reasonable amount of damage to the business and importantly there are now going to be a number of people who are employed at this business who are now going to be out of work because of it so it’s important because at has a significant community impact beyond the fire itself.
“There was as second fire here in April and that matter is currently still under investigation.”
Inquiries into the cause of the fire continue and police have urged anyone with information about unusual or suspicious activity in the area to come forward.
Police are urging anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.