A man has been charged after allegedly lighting fires in Macquarie Fields and the Blue Mountains.
Strike Force Yandina was established by officers attached to the State Crime Command’s Property Crime Squad to investigate a number of suspicious fires, believed to be linked.
Following investigations by Strike Force Yandina, just after 1.45pm last Friday (February 19), a 22-year-old man was arrested nearby following a fire in the Scheyville National Park.
No one was injured during the fire and officers attached to Fire & Rescue NSW extinguished it a short time later.
The man was taken to Windsor Police Station, where he was charged with lighting a fire and being reckless to its spread; he was also charged over an unrelated fraud offence.
He was refused bail and appeared at Windsor Local Court the following day.
Yesterday, (Wednesday, February 24), the 22-year-old man appeared at Blacktown Local Court, where he was charged with two further counts of lighting a fire.
The two charges relate to fires on October 2 last year, at Simmos Beach Reserve and at the Georges River Nature Reserve in Macquarie Fields, which are alleged to have been deliberately lit.
The man has been refused bail to reappear at Blacktown Local Court on March 9.
Inquiries continue and police say that further charges are expected to be laid.
