Firefighters are investigating the cause of an out-of-control blaze at a Defence Force live firing range, which threatened the small town of Currarong, on the NSW south coast.
Rural Fire Service (RFS) Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said Thursday's fire, which started on the Beecroft Peninsula, tore through the unexploded ordnance range, but the cause of the fire is unknown.
"We simply do not know the cause and origin of that fire at the moment and I'm awaiting some advice in that regard," Mr Fitzsimmons told reporters in Sydney on Friday.
"We need to identify what happened and how that fire may have started. I need to be very clear that the firefighters do not fight fires on the firing range - it is simply too dangerous."
The blaze has since been downgraded to an "advice" warning after firefighting aircrafts were used to lay a line of retardant, which acted as a fire break.
"As I indicated last night, extensive work was done to the north of that fire which spread under very strong southerly gusty winds of up to 60, 70, 90km per hour," Mr Fitzsimmons said on Friday.
Cooler conditions that moved through the state on Thursday evening helped firefighters contain the blaze, and the township is no longer under threat.
"We're confident that given the weather conditions and given the strategies deployed, that they should have that fire under control and contained hopefully by sunset today," Mr Fitzsimmons added.
Close to 30 blazes burned out of control on Thursday, as nearly 400 firefighters worked to contain and monitor the bush and grass fires across the state.
A Hunter region RFS volunteer firefighter, Paul Sanderson, died while battling a blaze near Cessnock after he suffered a suspected heart attack on Thursday evening.
It was a tragic reminder about the dangers faced by RFS members, said Mr Fitzsimmons.
In 2013 a massive blaze known as the State Mine Fire, which destroyed 50,000 hectares of land and three homes around the Blue Mountains, was sparked by a Defence Force military exercise.
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