A MAN who sparked a grass fire in a vacant block next to his home at Telarah during a period of severe fire danger last month has been jailed for a maximum of 16 months in Maitland Local Court.
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Danny Michael Farrugia, 40, was abused by passersby who spotted him and the fire in Elizabeth Street, Telarah, on the night of December 5.
Farrugia told police he was at home about 9.20pm when he went outside and poured petrol in the empty block next door.
He then used a propane gas torch to ignite the fuel, causing a small fire, according to a statement of agreed facts.
Farrugia later told police he had with him an old pair of pants that he planned to use to extinguish the fire, but said he did not have any water to prevent it from spreading.
A person driving past spotted the fire and Farrugia and abused him for lighting the blaze.
The fire then quickly spread and engulfed the vacant block and jumped the rear of the property and began spreading towards nearby railway lines.
Farrugia jumped the fence with a rag and stamped out that part of the fire as other residents called triple-zero and began battling the blaze with hoses and buckets of water. The volunteer neighbourhood firefighting crew managed to extinguish most of the fire, with only a few sections of grass left smouldering as police arrived to ask Farrugia what had happened.
"I've noticed some brown snake skins in my yard and I've been worried about them," Farrugia said. "I had just a small fire behind the wall to get rid of them. "Some guy stopped in a car and started threatening me, that's when the fire took off ... I didn't mean to make a big fire." Police say they thought Farrugia was intoxicated, he was slurring his words and appeared in a state of shock.
He was arrested and later made full admissions to intentionally sparking the fire, telling police he lit the blaze in a bid to control the grass and weeds along the retaining wall in the neighbouring vacant block.
"I did know a total fire ban was in place," Farrugia said. "I just wasn't thinking properly."
Farrugia was charged with intentionally causing fire and being reckless as to its spread and was refused bail.
He pleaded guilty and on Thursday in Maitland Local Court was jailed for a maximum of 16 months, with a non-parole period of eight months.
He will be eligible for parole in August this year.
