A man has been arrested on Sydney's Northern Beaches after allegedly arming himself with an axe and confronting firefighters while his house burnt down.
Emergency services were called to the house in Alexander Road at Whale Beach shortly after 2am on Friday.
Police say that when the firefighters began to hose the burning building a man armed with an axe confronted them.
The firefighters backed off and called for assistance, with police arresting the man a short time later.
He is assisting police with their inquiries.
The weatherboard house was destroyed, with the cause of the fire yet to be determined.
The attack came on what was a busy night for firefighters, with crews having to extinguish three other house fires around Sydney.
A 70-year-old man is in hospital being treated for smoke inhalation after he escaped a fierce fire that gutted his home in Avalon, also on the northern beaches overnight.
In the city's south, a hydroponic set up was discovered in an unoccupied Kogarah home that went up in flames, and a fire in the the city's west ripped through a two-storey Campbelltown building with two people needing to be treated for minor smoke inhalation.
