WA: Firefighter's "foolish" plot to avoid blaze blame

AAP General News (Australia)
12-03-2007
WA: Firefighter's "foolish" plot to avoid blaze blame

By Nicolas Perpitch

PERTH, Dec 3 AAP - A volunteer firefighter "foolishly" sought to dispel rumours he
was deliberately lighting bushfires in his callout zone by lighting several outside the
area, a Perth court has been told.

Christopher William Robert Spooner, 21, of Glen Forrest, is on trial in the Western
Australian District Court accused of wilfully lighting seven fires in the Perth Hills
area between September and November 2005.

He has been charged under the WA Bushfires Act, where it must be proved the fires were
likely to injure people or property.

During opening submissions today, Spooner's lawyer Tom Percy QC said his client admitted
lighting three fires which occurred outside his Darlington Volunteer Bushfire Brigade's
area of responsibility.

But Spooner denies he lit the first four fires within the brigade's zone.

Mr Percy told the court the three "low risk" fires Spooner did light were not likely
to cause damage to people or property and he was therefore not guilty.

"He did light those fires .. they were readily detected, they were easily extinguished
and no damage was done," Mr Percy told the court.

Mr Percy said there were rumours Spooner had lit the first four fires because he was
unemployed and was always first on the scene of a breakout.

"The rumours were to the effect that he was lighting the fires so he could justify
his existence and go down there and put them out," he said.

"In an attempt to dispel that, he thought it might be useful, might deflect attention
from him to light fires in (an adjoining zone).

"Spooner thought by lighting three fires in the Glen Forrest zone people would not
think he was starting the blazes to keep himself busy," Mr Percy said.

"Of course his reasoning was foolish and he accepts that."

Mr Percy did not contest prosecutor John Foulsham's contention Spooner admitted to
police he had lit all seven fires, but said his client had been "overwhelmed" by his arrest
and "took the path of least resistance".

Mr Foulsham said the fires "could have easily caused severe damage to persons and or property".

The trial continues.

AAP np/sp

KEYWORD: SPOONER

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