A fire is burning in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, for the third straight day, but easing wind conditions could finally help firefighters.
The blaze at Leura continued into Tuesday night in an inaccessible area below a clifftop.
No homes are presently threatened, and fire crews are hoping for a break in weather conditions on Wednesday.
The NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) believes an arsonist could be responsible for the fire, which has burned through seven hectares of bushland since Monday afternoon.
"You have to be suspicious on these occasions. There's an absence of a natural cause and we're working closely with the police force," RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told Fairfax Radio on Tuesday.
"The bottom line is if anyone wants to participate in that sort of criminal activity, then they deserve to be caught, arrested and put before the courts."
The bushfire season doesn't officially begin until October 1, but grassfires across NSW have already kept fire crews busy this week.
Wind conditions across the state are expected to ease on Wednesday, after gusts approaching 100km/h hit Sydney and the Illawarra and Hunter regions on Tuesday.
Firefighters can take comfort from that.
