Passerby rushes to alert occupants as fence fire burns close to apartments on Tarcutta Street, Wagga

Firefighters rushed to the douse the flames after a passerby alerted them to the fire at the rear of a riverside property on Tarcutta Street about 6pm on Sunday.

The passerby, a man who had been riding his bike along the levee bank nearby with his two children, rushed to tell the occupants the brushwood-style fence was alight while also calling emergency services.

"I just came up and saw that one panel was on fire," the man, who wished to remain anonymous, said.

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"Because I'd ridden past it, I told my kids to stop because it was getting extremely hot. So the kids were on one side of the fire and I was on the other.

"I sort of just jumped off my bike and ran back past it [the fire] again, called the firies, was banging on their [the occupants] doors ... to try and get their attention.

"I finally got through to them while I was on the phone to the firies and they were not aware their back fence was completely ablaze by that time."

The man said minutes later police officers, who had been driving past, rushed in to assist.

The officers used a small fire extinguisher to help put out a grass fire, which had been ignited by a fallen fence panel.

Fire and Rescue NSW Turvey Park station officer Aaron Campbell said crews arrived to find the fence alight.

"Two fire trucks and eight firefighters extinguished it using two lines of hose," Mr Campbell said.

The fire burned on what was Wagga's hottest March day in 82 years of records, after the mercury climbed to 39.9 degrees at the city's airport earlier on Sunday afternoon.

The cause of the blaze is under investigation, but is believed to have been deliberately lit. Police are investigating.

Mr Campbell described the ignition of a fire in such conditions and so close to homes as "reckless and irresponsible".

"Any fire that's deliberately lit is certainly a concern to us and that's elevated by the temperatures and the conditions that we've seen today," he said.

"It's certainly reckless and irresponsible being lit so close to homes. If we hadn't of gotten here as quickly as we did, certainly things could have turned out much differently."

The passerby said his main concern wasn't the fence, but everything else nearby due to the hot weather.

"If no one had come past and it fell over onto the river [side] and the trees caught fire and then the backyard was on fire, it could have taken out houses," he said.

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