Quick-thinking Warriewood residents grabbed garden hoses and buckets to extinguish a suspicious bushfire in Irrawong Reserve on Saturday evening, containing the blaze until emergency services arrived.
Fire and Rescue NSW crews were initially called to a small fire on Forest Road around 6.30pm on 10 January, but firefighters from Narrabeen station grew suspicious when they noticed the amount of smoke didn’t match the size of that blaze.
Their instincts proved correct. Just after 6.45pm, residents along Irrawong Road at North Narrabeen reported a second fire in Irrawong Reserve near Mullet Creek. Local residents immediately sprang into action, using garden hoses and buckets of water to fight the flames before emergency services could reach the scene.
The second fire prompted a significant response, with multiple NSW Rural Fire Service crews mobilised from Ingleside, Terrey Hills, Belrose and Beacon Hill. Fire and Rescue NSW stations from Dee Why, Narrabeen and Avalon also attended, with the Dee Why crew stopping at the Garden Street location adjacent to an aged care facility.
Despite the fire burning in swampy and damp bushland, extreme heat and strong winds created dangerous conditions during the total fire ban period. Emergency services faced the real threat of flames spreading into the larger Ingleside Chase Reserve, where steep terrain would have made containment extremely difficult.
The residents’ early efforts to suppress the fire proved crucial, buying valuable time until firefighters arrived in force. Working together, Fire and Rescue NSW and Rural Fire Service crews contained the blaze to an area of approximately 20 metres by 20 metres.
The main fire threat was extinguished shortly after 7pm, but the dense vegetation continued to pose challenges. Hot spots persisted in palm trees, which dropped burning embers for some time. RFS firefighters from Ingleside also dealt with a dangerous tree overhanging a walking trail that risked imminent collapse, safely bringing down the large branch and extinguishing remaining fire by 9pm.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation. With blazes discovered in two separate locations and drug paraphernalia found at the scene, authorities are treating the incident as suspicious. Northern Beaches Police Area Command officers have been called in to investigate.
Published 11-January-2026
