A volunteer firefighter in Australia has been charged after allegedly setting multiple blazes, some of which he helped put out afterwards, as the country continues to battle one of its worst bushfire seasons on record.
Almost 130 bush and grass fires are burning around the state of New South Wales, and experts fear the crisis could get worse when summer begins next month. Queensland has also been impacted, with hundreds of firefighters deployed across both states.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, NSW police Detective Inspector Scott Nelson said the 19-year-old man -- a volunteer for the Rural Fire Service -- had been charged with seven counts of deliberately setting fires over a six-week period.
He was arrested on Tuesday night after allegedly lighting a blaze in the Bega Valley area, in the state's southeast, that afternoon.
"As part of his duties as an (Rural Fire Service) volunteer he later attended that fire with other members and that fire was extinguished," Nelson said.