'Dangerous': Man started six blazes in Belconnen during bushfire season

The actions of a man who started six fires during a bushfire season, including close to houses, have been blasted by a magistrate as “significantly dangerous”.

Boyd Manns lit six fires in grassland around the Belconnen and Giralang region in northern Canberra during the early hours of 23 November, 2023.

Two of these fires were started within 50 metres of houses, while another was 150 m from people’s homes.

The fires saw numerous police, firefighters and fire trucks called to extinguish them.

Magistrate Jane Campbell said some of the fires were close to people’s homes and the case was made more serious as many residents would have been asleep at the time.

“It could have easily got out of control before someone became alerted to it,” she said.

She said a witness took a video of Manns during the fires and he was spotted by police later that morning.

He made admissions about lighting the fires and police found a cigarette lighter on him.

Manns originally pleaded not guilty, then eventually pleaded guilty to six counts of lighting an unauthorised fire before coming before the ACT Magistrates Court for sentencing on Monday (20 January).

His barrister, James Sabharwal, said his now-22-year-old client spent two days in custody after he was arrested.

The barrister said, “It’s not clear why he was lighting fires”, but suggested it could have been due to the amount of alcohol he consumed at the time.

The prosecutor noted how the fires were lit during the bushfire season, how some reached 10 by 10 metres in size and said Manns hadn’t made any attempt to put them out.

Magistrate Campbell said lighting fires close to people’s homes during a bushfire season was “a significantly dangerous activity”.

She said it seemed the offences, “although very bizarre”, had a lot to do with his alcohol use at the time.

The magistrate said Manns’ parents had written a letter for the court that said his behaviour was extremely out of character for him, particularly as they had a family member who lost everything in a fire.

The court heard that while he had struggled with alcoholism, he was now sober.

Magistrate Campbell accepted he was remorseful and said the author of a court report thought he expressed sorrow and shame for his behaviour.

The maximum penalty for the charges was one year’s jail each, as the penalty had been increased because the offences occurred during the bushfire season.

Manns was convicted and sentenced to a 12-month good behaviour order with 200 hours of community service.