A Riverland man will front court today following a series of alleged deliberately lit fires near Bookpurnong.
Police say the The alarm was first raised Just prior to midnight Wednesday after a large scrub fire was reported adjacent to Bookpurnong Road near vineyards.
Then Thursday morning around 6.30am a scrub fire was reported south of Nitschke Road.
While that was controlled in just over an hour, Murray Mallee police commenced a search of the area with PolAir finding further grass fires burning in the area.
Police responded to a total of eight grass fires in the area in total around Bookpurnong.
Just prior to 6pm Thursday evening police located the suspect hiding in the river and was subsequently arrested.
The 49-year-old local man was charged with multiple counts of intentionally causing a bushfire and did not apply for Bail.
