The actions of a person who deliberately lit a fire in Alexandra when conditions were tinder dry was "reckless'' and "moronic'' and risked lives, police and firefighters say.
An aerosol can was found at the scene of a fire lit early on Saturday against a poplar tree in vegetation between the Alexandra Police Station and the river bank.
"Given the high fire risk at the moment, the potential was there for a wide-scale fire and it was a moronic action to take,'' Sergeant Matt Alley said yesterday.
Alexandra Volunteer Fire Brigade officer in charge at the scene, Station Officer Derek Shaw, said emergency services were called about 1.24am to the "small but intense fire''.
Before the fire crews arrived, police had done their best to try to put it out using fire extinguishers but it was too intense.
"From my point of view, the actions of the person who did this were reckless, irresponsible and unnecessary, given the conditions in the area right now, and the person put lives in jeopardy by constructing a fire, clearly using an accelerant,'' Mr Shaw said.
"The person endangered the lives of police officers, firefighters and any well-meaning member of the public who may have smelled the smoke and come to help. The exploding can could've hit someone and the fire could've easily spread if the wind was blowing in a different direction.''
It was fortunate the fire was brought under control quickly, as conditions were extremely dry, he said.
Some time over the weekend, someone also set fire to one of the picnic tables in Alexandra's Centennial Park, damaging several planks of timber on the top.
Sgt Alley was "keeping an open mind'' on whether the two incidents were linked.
Central Otago's only recycling operation was the target of a deliberately lit fire early in September.
Central Otago WasteBusters' processing building, staffroom and reuse shop in Boundary Rd was gutted by fire but it was back in business 10 days later, using temporary facilities on the site.
Sgt Alley said the WasteBusters arson was "still an active investigation''.
Asked if there was any link between the most recent fires and the one at WasteBusters, he said: "At the moment there's nothing to hook them together, but that's not to say we'd rule it out at this stage.''
