When asked why she had lit the blaze, the 56-year-old woman told police: “Want to make smoke for symbol of Olympic Games”.

It was at 2.41pm on December 29 last year that the woman used a cigarette lighter to set fire to grass and leaves in Rosedale Drive, West Albury.

She parked her car about 150 metres from the end of a bitumen road, where the landscape is native bushland.

The fire spread quickly towards Nail Can Hill, and also engulfed the woman’s car.

She became frightened and ran from the area, waving down a woman passing by in a car.

“My shoe is broken and I just set my car on fire,” she told the witness.

Police went to her home after checks on the registration of her vehicle at the scene of the fire.

She co-operated with police and made full admissions, telling them: “I went to make some small fire. The fire burnt and something burnt on my car. I got scared and went home.”

Thirty fire trucks were involved in battling the blaze, as well as an aircraft after the fire rushed up the eastern ridge of Nail Can Hill, inaccessible to trucks.

It took more than three hours for about 80 Rural Fire Service personnel and 20 firefighters from Albury NSW Fire and Rescue to contain the blaze.

About a dozen firefighters stayed overnight to patrol and continue dousing the flames.

They stayed on site for several days.

Magistrate Megan Greenwood told the woman yesterday the situation was “very, very serious”.

“Your explanation that you wanted to make a smoke symbol for the Olympic Games at the time makes no sense and shows me you were clearly very ill at the time of this offending,” she said.

“You were completely compliant with police and you have no criminal record.

“You are 56 years old and until now, you’ve led a blameless life.”

The charges against the woman were dismissed and she was discharged to continue mental health treatment.