A car has started a bushfire in Sydney's south as the Rural Fire Service (RFS) issued a high or very high bushfire danger warning for much of NSW on Friday.
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Emergency services were called to the M1 Princes Motorway at Waterfall about 2pm with reports a car was on fire.
The fire spread quickly to bushland on the side of the road. Both southbound lanes were closed about 15 minutes after the fire began, to allow emergency services to respond.
Fifty firefighters, including crews from the RFS and Fire and Rescue NSW, took almost two hours to extinguish the fire. They were expected to remain on the scene for several hours to mop up and ensure all sparks were extinguished.
A spokeswoman for the Transport Management Centre said one lane of the motorway was reopened about 3.30pm, but traffic remained very heavy in the area and was queued back more than two kilometres.
Cars had been diverted onto the Princes Highway to get around the blaze.
The bushfire was one of more than 50 burning around the state on Friday, with 36 considered out of control.
Another fire burned on the Beecroft Peninsula in Jervis Bay, on the South Coast, after it was sparked on Thursday when Defence hazard reduction burning broke containment lines.
By Friday afternoon, it had burned 580 hectares. Twenty RFS firefighters remained on the scene with four trucks, as a helicopter repeatedly dropped water on the blaze to protect Aboriginal cultural artefacts it was threatening.
No homes are under threat by the fire. Crews have contained it to the north, before a blustery southerly change is expected in the area on Saturday.
The Illawarra/Shoalhaven and Far South Coast regions have a very high fire danger, the RFS says, while regions including Greater Sydney, Greater Hunter, New England, the North Coast, Far North Coast and Central Ranges have a high fire danger.
The state's west, which remains gripped by flooding, is considered to have a low to moderate fire danger.
However, the RFS is warning the extra moisture could lead to higher fire danger in the long run, as it encourages the growth of grass which will dry out in warm weather, adding easy fuel for grass fires.
The bushfire season officially begins in the October long weekend. This year, it stuck to the timetable almost exactly, with a week of intense fire activity opening the season from last Friday.
Inspector Ben Shepherd from the RFS said the fire activity was a result of warm, dry westerly winds and people should sit up and take notice.
"In and around Sydney today, in Penrith, we've seen a number of grass fires," Mr Shepherd said.
"They're right up and down the coast. We're seeing a rise in fire activity. Today, this afternoon we had over 50 fires of which 36 still remained out of control or still contained.
"It's clearly demonstrating, and hopefully people are sitting up and taking note, we're now in the fire season, so hopefully they're making decisions about what they'll do this year if a fire impacts on them."
Grass fires burn up to three times faster than bushfires, the RFS says.
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