Suspicious fires between Shepparton and Mooroopna under investigation

A Mooroopna man has been arrested in relation to 11 fires that were allegedly lit in bushland between Shepparton and Mooroopna within 12 days.

Police have arrested a man in relation to a string of fires in Shepparton.

UPDATED: A Mooroopna man has been arrested after a series of fires were started in bushland near the Midland Highway within two weeks.

Police allege eleven fires were lit in Shepparton and Mooroopna between May 1 and May 12.

The fires impacted numerous plants, trees and grassland, but there were no threats to any properties.

Shepparton Crime Investigation Unit detectives arrested a 76-year-old Mooroopna man on Monday.

He is expected to be charged on summons with lighting the fires.

Police continue to appeal for anyone who witnessed the incident, has CCTV or dashcam footage or information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or online.

EARLIER

Police are attempting to establish if one or more offenders were involved in lighting at least eight fires in bushland between Shepparton and Mooroopna.

Firefighters from Forest Fire Management Victoria and the CFA were called out to eight blazes between Friday and Monday.

The FFMV units contained fire lit in grass and under trees near the shared bike and pedestrian path between the two towns.

The CFA responded to two incidents were mattresses had been set alight.

Shepparton detectives are investigating the fires with investigators believing an unknown offender or multiple offenders set fire to the bushland.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the cause of the fires was being treated as suspicious and investigations remained ongoing.

“Numerous plants, trees and grassland were impacted and there were no threats to any surrounding properties,” she said.

“Investigators are working to establish whether the same offender or offenders are responsible for all incidents.”

FFMV incident controller Bruce Wehner said there were three fires on Friday, two on Saturday, one on Sunday and another two on Monday in the Shepparton Regional Park.

“All the fires have been ignited close to the shared bike path,” he said.

“The biggest one was the first one on Friday which was about 30m by 15m.

“Some were out in the open and some under trees.

“The weather has been pretty kind to us, we’ve been able to pull them up so they’ve been burning but we’ve got to them pretty quick.”

Mr Wehner said the CFA was great getting out quickly and knocking fires down with a tanker.

Eight fires were lit in scrubland between Shepparton and Mooroopna across four days.

FFMV crews then spent time patrolling and fully extinguishing the fire.

“They’re obviously suspicious, there’s been no lightning out there in weeks,” he said.

“The fire danger at this time of year is pretty low, really, although it is very dry out there.

“You’ve got the tussock grasses that can be a 1m high but in between them, it’s just sort of bare ground and dry leaves.

“For 12 months of the year, you can’t light fires like that in the in the forest, unless it’s a campfire within the regulations in a pit that’s cleared around, and these aren’t campfires.”

Anyone with information or anyone who may have witnessed any suspicious activity in the area, with dashcam or CCTV footage or information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at crimestoppersvic.com.au.