Police are investigating after three bushfires were deliberately lit on a high fire danger day in Hobart.
Emergency services were called to bushland between Clarendon Vale and Acton Park about 6:30pm on Tuesday after reports of scrub fires in the Stanfields Hill area.
The Tasmania Fire Service deployed three waterbombing helicopters and ground crews from six brigades to contain the blazes.
Sergeant Jake Sansom from Clarence Plains police station said preliminary investigations had determined the fires were deliberately lit.
“The incidents occurred on a high fire danger day and required significant firefighting resources, including multiple aerial assets, to bring the fires under control,” he said.
“This behaviour posed a serious risk to the community and is completely unacceptable.”
Sergeant Sansom said anyone found to be responsible would face consequences.
“Police actively investigates reports of unlawfully set fires and anyone identified as being involved in deliberately lighting fires will be held fully accountable,” he said.
Crews from Rokeby, Clarence, Sandford, Lauderdale, Seven Mile Beach and Cambridge assisted with the response.
Acting Station Officer Jeremy Hughes yesterday said the fires had been brought under control and there was no threat to the community.
He said crews would continue monitoring the area over coming days to extinguish any hot spots.
The incident follows several reports of deliberately lit fires in the same bushland area in recent weeks.
Police are urging anyone with information to contact them on 131 444 or Crime Stoppers anonymously.
