Arson probe amid fears Hills bushfire deliberately lit

Department of Fire and Emergency Services incident controller Adrian Hamill said the arson squad was at the fire ground last night.“They have determined an area of origin of about 100m area. They are coming back today to further investigate. They didn’t really get anything because it was night and they will come back further but they do think it was suspicious,” Mr Hamill said.A police spokeswoman said the arson squad was investigating, however that was normal procedure and it was to early to confirm the cause of the fire.The fire, which was reported at 3.41pm on Boxing Day, has burnt through 167 hectares.While the fire was now contained and under control there is still a threat to lives and homes as firies work to douse embers high up in trees.People in an area bounded by Government Road, Old Northam Road, Forge Farm Riding School, Liberton Road and Jason Street in parts of Wooroloo, Chidlow and Gidgegannup have been told they are still in danger. This includes people in the Warrigal Estate.“There is still fire activity in the area because of the high trees and the fire impact in the trees which is causing crews a lot of issues to try to extinguish,” Mr Hamill said.“The embers are just going all over the place so we have had a couple of hop-overs but we have plenty of resources there for us to say it is under control but we don’t want residents back in.”Mr Hamill said some residents remained in the Warrigal Estate, despite advice to evacuate.Windy conditions with gusts of up to 50kmh are still a concern but fire crews have managed to hold the containment lines.“We’ve only confirmed one loss near the origin of the fire, that would have happened very early on in the fire in the afternoon before we got a lot of resources on scene.“We’ve lost sheds and but we’ve saved all the houses in Warrigal Estate as of 8am.” Via news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site https://www.news.com.au