Christopher McMahon has sentenced reduced on appeal after bushfire conviction

A 72-year-old man who lit a “pile of sticks” at the height of the black summer bushfires has been jailed to send a message to the “thick skulls” in the community that they shouldn’t light fires during dangerous weather conditions.

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An elderly Deua Valley man jailed in September after his illegal hazard reduction burn contributed to a Boxing Day bushfire has had his sentence reduced on appeal.

Christopher Paul McMahon, 72, was sentenced to two years in jail at Moruya Local Court in September, after being convicted of permitting a fire to escape land, causing damage, and lighting a fire for land clearance or fire break without a permit.

The court heard his hazard reduction burn joined a much larger fire front on the Clyde Mountain on December 26 last year, damaging a crucial telecommunications tower and diverting firefighters from other blazes.

Bega District Court judge Andrew Haesler, who told the court he himself had been evacuated from Tathra during the 2018 bushfire, reduced McMahon’s non-parole period from 18 months to 12 months on October 19.

Judge Haesler told McMahon he found it “impossible to believe someone would light a cigarette on a high fire danger day, let alone a pile of sticks,” he said.

The Australian Army was called into help fight the Clyde Mountain fire.

“You, by your actions, caused considerable damage.”

He highlighted McMahon’s age and cognitive impairments brought on by alcohol use, and his early guilty plea, as reasons for reducing his sentence.

Judge Haesler told McMahon “even the experts can get it wrong” when undertaking hazard reduction burns.

However, he said significant jail time was necessary as a deterrent to others, and to get it through the “thick skulls” of members of the public that no fires should be lit on days classified as of high fire danger.

Prosecutors said McMahon, who appeared via audio video link, had only armed himself with a 10 litre jerry can of water, and “was unprepared to deal with the fire if it got out of control”.

On a day of extreme fire danger, McMahon had thought his fire was extinguished when he returned to his house to watch cricket on television.

The court heard the fire then went on to destroy a communications tower at Wanderra crucial to emergency services fighting the larger blaze.

McMahon’s fire also saw firefighters and their resources diverted from other fires on the day, the court heard.

McMahon will be paroled on September 10 next year.