ARSONISTS have caused chaos for firefighters across the nation, with a deliberately lit blaze in Perth's Kings Park yesterday burning up much-needed firefighting resources as it threatened a block of luxury apartments.
Fire crews battling two other major blazes across the city were stretched to the limit as the temperature neared 42C.
On the other side of the country, two alleged arsonists faced court for triggering a bushfire in the Wollemi National Park in NSW after burning a stolen car. Fire officials warn that the state will face dangerous conditions next week.
In Western Australia, the arson squad said a suspect had been seen running from the area where the Kings Park fire had been lit at about 6.30am yesterday.
Fire and Emergency Service Authority incident controller Bruce Jones said the arsonist had picked a day when strong shifting winds had made the firefighters' task even tougher. "It's madness," he said. "It's a bad day for a fire at any time, especially when we've got the conditions we've got today. We've had two other serious incidents in the metropolitan area. It's stretched our resources to capacity."
More than 15ha of Kings Park, on the fringe of the CBD, were burnt out, with the flames at one point threatening luxury homes along Park Avenue.
The fire was contained at about 11am, but flared again and headed towards the Old Swan Brewery on the Swan River. Staff were evacuated and the fire reached within 200m of the building before firefighters, helped by three helicopter water bombers, managed to stop the blaze.
A bushfire was also burning out of control in the Yanchep National Park, on Perth's northern outskirts. The fire, which started in the coastal town of Two Rocks, had burnt more than 5000ha of bushland and pine plantation last night. FESA spokesman Mike Venn said it was likely to take up to three days to bring the blaze under control. "We've got no way of stopping it for many, many hours," he said.
Firefighters were also battling a large bushfire that burnt a house at Bridgetown, 270km south of Perth. The fire, which blackened 1500ha of land, hit a home at Highland housing estate on the outskirts of the town. The extent of the damage was unknown. After the fire came within 5km of the town, a wind change pushed it away from homes and towards the South West Highway.
In NSW, one of the two men charged yesterday over the Wollemi National Park blaze northwest of Sydney was revealed to be a former Rural Fire Service volunteer. The men allegedly set fire to a Holden Commodore near Kurrajong at about 3pm on Wednesday before the fire spread to surrounding bushland. A 19-year-old man was arrested at a home in North Richmond on Thursday night, and a 20-year-old man was arrested at Richmond.
Additional reporting: John Stapleton
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