Three arrested in relation to Sydney fires
Police have arrested three youths for allegedly lighting bush fires south of Sydney as blazes continued to wreak havoc across Australia’s most populous state.
The trio, all aged 15, were arrested late yesterday in Shellharbour, some 60 miles south of Sydney, a police spokeswoman said today.
The boys were allegedly spotted lighting three bush fires by residents, who extinguished the flames with police help.
The arrests come as about 100 bush fires - some now in their seventh day - continued to raze hundreds of thousands of acres of land in New South Wales state.
About 400 boy scouts were evacuated overnight from an area south west of the state capital, Sydney, as wildfires and back burning operations threatened their camp. The action takes the number of people evacuated since Christmas Day to some 4,400 people.
Authorities have said 150 homes have been destroyed and thousands of animals such as koalas and kangaroos have died as the fires burn north, south and west of Sydney, some less than 15 miles from the city centre.
Major roads and rail services have been cut by the fires and about 12,000 homes are without electricity.
The youths, from Shellharbour and nearby towns, were interviewed by police and returned home, the spokeswoman said.
It was too early to say what action would be taken against the boys, but police are considering pressing charges, she said.
Neryl East, spokeswoman for the local emergency control centre, said the news was distressing for people in the area, some of whom had lost their homes in the wildfires.
‘‘That’s obviously a situation of great concern for everybody and people are asked to be on the lookout for that sort of thing and report it to police,’’ she said.
Police said yesterday they had set up a task force to gather information on a number of fires they considered suspicious.
Rural Fire Services Commissioner Phil Koperberg said there were as many as 40 fires that could not be explained and may have been deliberately lit.
Authorities have said lightning strikes caused some of the fires.
