January 2 2015
- Two 17-year-old youths will be charged over a fire that destroyed a barn and about 1000 bales of hay early yesterday morning.
Burnie CIB detectives interviewed the two youths in relation to the deliberately lit barn fire in Mooreville Road, Burnie.
The youths will be charged with the fire and causing damage to property. Both will be proceeded against under the provisions of the Youth Justice Act.
The barn is expected to continue burning for days.
The structure fire, which caused an estimated $40,000 damage, was called in to the Tasmania Fire Service at 3.55am yesterday.
Two TFS units from the Burnie brigade and one from the Somerset brigade attended, with the first vehicle at the scene by 4.03am to find the shed engulfed by flames.
It wasn’t until 7am that the fire was deemed relatively under control, Burnie fire brigade officer Shane Andrews said.
Mr Andrews said by 7am it was starting to be under control, but was still burning pretty well. Firefighters were happy it wasn’t spreading.
Because of the hay, it meant the fire would burn for days. An excavator would be brought in to pull the hay bales out as best they could and this would help the fire burn out.
“It should keep burning for two to three days minimum,” Mr Andrews said.
He said initial photographs taken when the TFS was first on the scene indicated that the fire was deliberately lit and investigations found this suspicion to be true.
The case was handed over to Burnie CIB.
“A roller and a grader were also broken into on the property last night, which is part of the reason why we knew the fire had been deliberately lit.”
Mr Andrews said the hay inside the shed was estimated to have cost $10,000 and the cost of rebuilding the shed $30,000, taking the estimated cost of damage to $40,000.
