Australia wildfires: Dozens arrested for deliberately starting fires

Police take no-tolerance approach as bushfires destroy more than 2,000 homes

24 Australians have been arrested in New South Wales for deliberately igniting fires since November, alongside 53 who failed to obey a total fire ban and 47 who allegedly threw lit cigarettes or matches.

Police have taken a strict no-tolerance approach to taking legal action against recklessness as the country struggles to gain control over the bushfire crisis that has destroyed over 2,000 homes so far.

NSW Police Force Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys told reporters: “I know that all of those people aren’t [alleged] arsonists in a sense, I know a lot of them were doing things like using fireworks or lighting fires to camp or cook food or young children, in fact, that got the benefits of the Young Offenders Act and quite rightly so.

“I know all of those people are not people out there trying to kill people or destroy houses. Police are well aware that we need to take action against people, whatever that might be, in this time and it is particularly a heightened risk of fire activity and we’ve seen the devastation it causes.

“We make no apologies for being so vigilant about that,” he added.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, a 19-year-old boy was charged in connection with the lighting of seven fires at the Bega River.

In a separate incident, a 51-year-old man was accused of starting a “backburn” – a controlled fire used to deprive wildfires of fuel – to protect his illegal cannabis crop while allegedly making no attempt to manage the blaze.

Another man allegedly set fire to several waste bins and motor vehicles in Lake Macquarie.

Chad Joseph Musgrave was refused bail over the allegations and will reappear in court on Wednesday.

Intentionally starting a bushfire can result in legal action ranging from cautions to criminal charges, and warrants up to 21 years in prison, said authorities.

Damage caused to towns and infrastructures has racked up hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance claims.

The Insurance Council of Australia said Tuesday the total cost of damages so far have reached an estimated £370m in insurance claims, doubling in just two days.

Prime minister Scott Morrison committed an additional £1bn towards recovery efforts on Monday.

The wildfires, which spiralled out of control, have killed 25 people and scorched over 10.3 million hectares of land, an area the size of South Korea.

In addition to the loss of human life, ecologists fear that half a billion animals, as well as an entire species, have also perished in the fires, many unable to outrun the fires which spread with ferocity through the states of NSW and Victoria.