Australian volunteer firefighter charged with lighting bushfires

Police in fire-ravaged Australia on Wednesday charged a volunteer firefighter with arson, alleging he lit seven blazes before returning to help colleagues extinguish them. Authorities allege the 19-year-old deliberately lit seven fires on the far south coast of New South Wales -- the state worst-hit by a recent spate of devastating bushfires -- between mid-October and late November.

The man was allegedly seen sitting in a vehicle on Tuesday afternoon shortly before a fire broke out nearby. He was arrested shortly afterwards and charged with seven counts of causing a fire and being reckless to its spread. New South Wales Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said the teenager had been immediately stood down from his firefighting duties.

Six people have been killed, hundreds of homes destroyed and more than 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) scorched across Australia since early October. Dozens of fires were still burning on Wednesday, including 129 in New South Wales.

Large swathes of the state were facing “high” or “severe” fire danger conditions. More than 1,800 firefighters were battling those blazes, 66 of which were uncontained.