OUR ARSON HOT SPOTS

GEELONG suburbs driving the region’s arson rate have been revealed as fire crews battled two blazes on Monday night.

New data from the Crime Statistics Agency shows Corio and Norlane experienced the highest number of arson cases in 2017, followed by Little River, Lara and Grovedale.

Despite the Greater Geelong region as a whole experiencing a 24.12 per cent decline in arson charges last year compared with the previous year, Little River arson cases more than tripled with 14 offences recorded.

Greater Geelong PSA recorded 170 cases, down from a 10-year high of 224 in 2016.

CFA operations officer Tony Field said that, after a long summer, arson was particularly frustrating for firefighters with a Highton grassfire deliberately lit near the Barwon River, off Buckley Falls Rd, about 6pm.

“We’re all so busy chasing fires we don’t need people going around lighting fires for us,” he said. “It’s so dangerous.”

Fire crews were kept busy across Monday night with a house fire and the grassfire burning within hours of each other.

Emergency services were called to Wilsons Rd, Whittington, near Solar Drive after reports of a house fire, shortly before 8.30pm.

It’s understood no one was home at the time. Crews spent more than an hour on the scene.

The electrical fire began in a bedroom of the house before spreading down a hallway to the kitchen area while the tenants were away.

It comes as police try to identify a hooded arsonist caught on CCTV torching bins outside an East Geelong fruit shop last week.

East Fruit Market owner Greg Holt said a young man walking home from town at 6.30am spotted the blaze as it started to run up the rear walls of the Ormond Rd business before rushing to find help.

If not for the young man, Mr Holt said, the Good Friday morning fire might have destroyed his entire business.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.