By Callum Ludwig
Police have charged a man after an alleged series of deliberately lit fires in the Yarra Valley during the early hours of Wednesday 14 August.
Local CFA brigades were called out to deal with the incidents, with all three fires being lit in or around the base of trees.
Warburton CFA Captain Ron McIntosh said the first fire they were called out to, alongside the Wesburn-Millgrove CFA, was near the ‘Welcome to Warburton’ sign.
“It was down the embankment and burning up one tree and slowly attaching itself to another tree when we got there, so we extinguished that one,” he said.
“The other one in McMahons Creek was up an embankment off the side of Woods Point Road just near Starvation Creek itself up near the Little Peninsula Tunnel and that was another tree stump that was actually smouldering away with a few embers so that could have been burning for quite a while before somebody passing by actually noticed it,”
“Where they were made us very suspicious about it because we were starting to think if it was on the side of the road it could be like a cigarette butt somebody’s thrown out of their car window, but especially the one in McMahons Creek because it was actually in a tree stump itself, you could tell that that was deliberate.”
Investigators received reports of grass fires at Warburton, Don Valley and McMahons Creek between 2am and 3.45am.
A Victoria Police spokesperson confirmed that a 29-year-old McMahons Creek man handed himself into Wangaratta Police Station on 15 August in relation to the fires.
Hillcrest CFA Captain Colin Dickson said the Don Valley incident was in green grass near the base of a tree so looked like it was fairly deliberate.
“Clearly it didn’t just start on its own but we couldn’t find any signs of what had been used to start it,” he said.
“When we were heading back to the, or we just got back to the station, Wesburn and Warby got a call for a similar fire, up the valley, an hour and a bit later, Warby and Reefton fot a call for another one up so there was a nice little run of three of them.”
He has subsequently been charged with reckless conduct placing persons in danger of serious injury, four counts of attempt to damage/destroy property by fire and possessing a drug of dependence.
He was bailed to appear at the Wangaratta Magistrates’ Court on 21 October.
