Fire and Rescue personnel run to move their truck as a bushfire burns next to a major road and homes on the outskirts of the town of Bilpin near Sydney on December 19. Photo / Getty

Teen firefighter one of 183 people on firelighting charges in NSW

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World

Author: NZ Herald,
Publish Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2020, 9:12AM

An Australian volunteer firefighter is one of nearly 200 people who have been charged with deliberately lighting fires in New South Wales in the last two months.

Blake Banner, 19, was charged in November with seven counts of causing fire and being "reckless to its spread" on the south coast of Australia.

He is one of 183 people in New South Wales who have been charged for fire-related offences since November as bush fires continue to rage across the state, and one of 24 accused of deliberately lighting bushfires.

The 19-year-old was allegedly spotted leaving a location as a fire spread rapidly and arrived at a fire ground to help put out a blaze before any of his fellow volunteers on another occasion, according to the Daily Mail.

Banner pleaded not guilty in December. The case has been adjourned till later this month.

Balmoral burns in south western Sydney as bushfires destroy homes in the area. Photo / Sam Ruttyn - News Ltd

At the time charges were laid against Banner he was immediately stood down from his firefighting role, with the New South Wales Rural Fire Service calling his alleged actions the "ultimate betrayal" to its members.

NSW RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said members would be "rightly angry" that Banner's alleged actions could tarnish the reputation and hard work of so many people.

"This type of alleged behaviour is the ultimate betrayal of our own members, and of the broader community," he said.

"The community has the right to be disappointed but we should not let it detract from the incredible work that firefighters have done in protecting and saving so many homes during unprecedented conditions."

NSW Police Minister David Elliott warned this week that New South Wales was a "tinder-box situation" and anyone caught putting the community at risk — whether they meant to or not — would end up before the courts.

Elliott said that residents would have to be from "Mars in a bubble" not to realise how dangerous it was to break the current total fire ban.

There was one frequent "unfortunate repeat offence" when it came to arson — motorists tossing cigarettes out of windows.

Of the 183 people charged in NSW, 47 had allegedly discarded a lit cigarette or match on land. Another 53 people were alleged to have failed to comply with a total fire ban.