9yo child admits to arson as dozens of WILDFIRES ravage southeast Australia (VIDEOS, PHOTOS)
RT | Nov 12, 2019
https://on.rt.com/a55w

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As southeastern Australian is ravaged by dozens of wildfires, a nine-year-old boy has admitted to using a blowtorch to start another blaze in the state of New South Wales.

At least three people have died and more than 170 homes have been destroyed by over 70 infernos that are raging in the state. The army is expected to be deployed in one of Australia’s largest ever peacetime military mobilizations in an effort to tackle the crisis.

A combination of high temperatures and strong winds may exacerbate the already dire situation as the greater Sydney area has been issued with its first ever "catastrophic" level fire warning.

“Catastrophic is off the conventional scale,” the commissioner of the New South Wales rural fire services, Shane Fitzsimmons, explained. “It’s where people die.”

Local fire crews rushed to fight the fire started by the nine-year-old in Worrigee, south of Wollongong. Police interviewed a group of children and the boy in question subsequently admitted to arson. Because of his young age he was only issued with a warning.