Man accused of lighting fires allegedly wanted to 'impress young son'
A former Rural Fire Service worker charged with arson allegedly lit a fire so his young son could see the fire trucks in action.
Father-of-four Ricky Ballard-Lestrange is now facing up to 14 years in prison after he allegedly lit a blaze on the NSW Mid North coast in extreme heat on Sunday.
It’s alleged Ballard-Lestrange lit two fires near Forster with a cigarette and a lighter, which has been taken by forensics.
The 32-year-old faced Taree court on Monday, in front of his heavily pregnant wife and family.
The court heard Ballard-Lestrange lit the fires in front of his two young children and told police it was because his four-year-old loved fire trucks and wanted to see them in action.
The temperature was 47.5C at the time.
Witness Wayne Griffis, who owns a turf farm just 300m from the fires, described the incident as “totally stupid”.
“We seen the vehicle stop there. We’re thinking ‘what’s he doing stopped there?’ and then he took off and we saw flames,” he said.
Ballard-Lestrange was arrested shortly after the fires were lit.
“We have volunteers, hundreds of men and women that are out there trying to protect the community,” assistant commissioner Frank Minnelli said.
“Then we have individuals, they’ll go and deliberately try to light fires. It’s extremely frustrating.”
Police arrested two more alleged firebugs on the weekend including a 13-year-old boy.
Ballard-Lestrange remains in custody and will appear in court again next week.
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