A 23-YEAR-old Rural Fire Service volunteer firefighter was arrested and charged with 13 counts of deliberately lighting fires in the Inverell area in a dawn raid on his home
yesterday.
Senior police told The Leader it was fortunate nobody had been injured or killed by the 56 fires believed to have been lit by the accused.
The suspect blazes had destroyed hundreds of hectares of Crown Land and private property.
Police said it was possible a search for thrills had been behind the incidents.
Justin Thomas Broadbent, from Inverell, faced Inverell Local Court yesterday charged with 13 counts of intentionally causing fire and being reckless in its spread.
Documents tendered to the court showed police used an electronic tracking device to link Broadbent’s vehicle to the ignition point of a number of fires.
In one instance, police allege Broadbent, dressed in his Rural Fire Service (RFS) uniform, was stopped by police in his car a short distance from where a fire had been lit.
He did not enter a plea yesterday and an application for bail was denied.
The case was adjourned to Moree Local Court today.
The charges follow more than four months of investigations into 56 individual fires in the Inverell district.
It is believed the first occurred last December. The most recent was allegedly lit on Friday.
It is alleged the accused lit a fire in September that devastated 80 hectares of Crown Land.
Most of the suspect fires had been lit on roadside reserves.
Some of these had taken off and burnt out large tracts of land.
Police swooped on Broadbent’s Myall St home just after 6am.
Detectives from the New England rural crime unit worked with specialist fire investigators from the NSW Rural Fire Service on the case.
New England LAC crime manager, Detective Inspector Greig Stier, said the 23-year-old had come under police notice “some time ago”.
“Our investigations indicate he had acted alone,” Detective Inspector Stier said.
Detective Inspector Stier said from experience, and as a result of other investigations he had been a part of, it appeared people who volunteered as firefighters and were then found to have been involved in deliberately lighting fires were after a thrill.
“They have lit the fires... because they got a thrill out of driving at high speeds in fire vehicles and then from being involved in fighting the fire,” he said.
“A fire bug in the volunteer fire service is a grave concern but we believe this is an isolated incident.”
Detective Inspector Stier said the arrest of the man should not tarnish the reputation of other dedicated volunteers.
NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons condemned the behaviour of arsonists as “dangerous and criminal”
yesterday.
“This is one member out of more than 70,000 hard working, professional, dedicated and highly skilled men and women who devote millions of hours to protecting their communities every year,” he said.
“RFS fire fighters are trusted members of the community... unfortunately there are sometimes people who decide to break that trust.”
Detective Inspector Stier said inquiries into a number of other suspicious fires lit in the Inverell area were continuing.
He urged anyone who saw or heard of any suspicious activity to report it to police immediately through Crime Stoppers on
1800 333 000.
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