'Bored' volunteer firefighter behind wave of bushfires

Jack Hardidge appeared in Cessnock Local Court on Wednesday where he pleaded guilty to eight counts of intentionally causing fire and being reckless as to its spread.

Prosecutors did not apply to have him detained ahead of sentencing and his bail was continued until next month.

Hardidge was arrested at Aberglasslyn in August last year after a "lengthy and tenacious" investigation by the Arson Unit into a number of suspicious and deliberately lit bushfires focused on the then 18-year-old NSW Rural Fire Service volunteer firefighter.

He was accused of lighting fires in grassland at Weston, Pelaw Main, Bellbird, Greta, Aberglasslyn, Melville and Cessnock on a number of occasions between July and August last year.

Prosecutors said in court that one fire burnt through about 16,000 square metres of bush, while another torched 11,000 square metres.

Police said Hardidge then attended some of the fires as a volunteer firefighter to help extinguish the blazes.

Hardidge was initially refused bail after his arrest and spent about a week behind bars before being granted bail on a number of strict conditions, including a curfew and a $20,000 surety.

The decision came despite prosecutors warning the blazes could have had "catastrophic consequences" and highlighted that Hardidge had told investigators he was "bored" when asked why he lit the fires.

They said Hardidge's position as a volunteer firefighter with the NSW Rural Fire Service meant he knew the dangers of an out-of-control fire and on some days he had lit as many as three blazes.

Hardidge will be sentenced in Cessnock Local Court in June after the DPP agreed to prosecute the matter in the local court, where the teenager faces lesser maximum penalties.