A THIRD suspicious fire was lit at about 5.30am on Monday morning on the side of Mount Napier Road at Gazette around 20 kilometres south of Hamilton.
Hamilton Police crime investigation unit (CIU) Detective Sergeant Mark James, said like the two previous fires on the same road in the last three months, it was again suspicious in nature with no explanation as to how it started.
He said it was technically on the Ripponhurst Road which is an extension of Macarthur-Penhurst and Mount Napier Roads, about 500 metres south of the Southern Grampians Shire boundary and about a kilometre from where the fire that was lit just over a week ago.
Det Sgt James said it was discovered by a passerby who called triple zero with three CFA appliances attending shortly afterwards including Ripponhurst Brigade and quickly extinguishing the fire.
“CFA did a great job putting it out and stopping it from spreading any further,” he said.
“It’s very concerning these fires have been started with no cause that is explainable at this point.
“We’ve now had three very similar fires within a kilometre.
“There’s very little traffic on that road – they’ve all happened at night time or in the early hours of the morning
“When you put it all together it looks very suspicious.
“We’re investigating it thoroughly.”
He said it burnt out an area around 200 metres in length from the side of the road to the fence line of a farm property.
“People who live out there are very nervous about it and for good reason,” Det Sgt James said.
“We’re not out of the woods with the fire season, so it’s in everybody’s interest to get to the bottom of this.”
Det Sgt James said there had been a good response following an appeal to the public after the last fire.
“We had a good response from people letting us know if they had been on the road around the time of the fire,” he said.
“We rely on the public that may have seen or heard something.
“Anyone that was on that road in the early hours of (Monday) morning between 4am and 6am, could they please get in touch with us or call Crime Stoppers.
“Obviously a lot of people use the road to come into town – if anyone was on that road, even if they didn’t see anything, it sometimes accounts for vehicles that have been seen and helps to eliminate vehicles.”
Det Sgt James said the charge of intentionally causing a bush fire under Victorian legislation that was brought in after the Black Saturday fires carries a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment.
“That’s just for starting a fire,” he said.
“There’s additional charges depending on the spread of the fire and the damage that is done.”
CFA District 5 Commander Rainer Kiessling confirmed four local brigades attended including Ripponhurst, Penshurst, Gazette and Croxton East.
“It was a small fire that was spreading, but it was quickly contained,” he said.
“We then called the fire cause investigators to attend from VicPol and CFA.
“We’re obviously investigating it – it was considered suspicious.”
