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Photo: One of more than 100 fires police believe has been deliberately lit around Rockhampton since May. ( ABC News: Christopher Davies)A teenage Rural Fire Service (RFS) volunteer allegedly used mosquito coils and cotton wool to deliberately light several grass fires around central Queensland in recent months.
Police said more than 100 fires have been deliberately lit in rural areas and towns around Rockhampton since May.
On Wednesday, they charged the 19-year-old RFS volunteer with lighting seven of those fires.
Detective Senior Sergeant Luke Peachey said they expected to link the teenager to more blazes.
“I can confirm he’s actually a volunteer at the Rural Fire Brigade,” he said.
“Obviously they’re trained with a certain amount of knowledge of how to set these fires and put these fires out. So it’s obviously very concerning.
“As a result we’ve placed him under very, very strict conditions to have no contact with any of those items or attend any more fires.”
Senior Sergeant Peachey said police worked “very closely” with the RFS on their investigation.
“The actual fires would indicate that someone has some knowledge and that’s probably the reason we were looking at this person,” he said,
“There’s been no serious damage to any property, but a large amount of grazing land and grassland has been destroyed.”
After tip-offs from the public, police searched the man’s house in the rural town of Mount Morgan on Wednesday and found items linking him to the fires.
“They used some sort of accelerant in some cases,” Senior Sergeant Peachey said.
“Other methods, he used perhaps a mosquito coil with a delayed fuse — so maybe with cotton wool stuffed into the mosquito coil.
“There’s a large amount of evidence we hope will forensically link this person to a number of fires and not only these seven we’ve charged him with.”
Police said they believed a grass fire police was deliberately lit on the outskirts of Mount Morgan the day the man was arrested.
He has not be charged with that fire.
Police have not ruled out the possibility others were involved in lighting the fires.
The 19-year-old was granted bail from the police watch house on a number of conditions, including that he adhere to a curfew.
He is due to face the Rockhampton Magistrates Court later this month.
A Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) spokesperson said they were aware of the charges against the RFS volunteer.
“QFES is also aware of the bail conditions which will prevent the RFS volunteer from participating in any brigade activities,” the spokesperson said.
Topics: fires, courts-and-trials, emergency-incidents, volunteers, rockhampton-4700, brisbane-4000, qld
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