New South Wales Consolidated Acts

RURAL FIRES ACT 1997 - SECT 100

100 Offences

(1) A person who, without lawful authority:

(a) sets fire or causes fire to be set to the land or property of another person, the Crown or any public authority, or

(b) being the owner or occupier of any land, permits a fire to escape from that land under such circumstances as to cause or be likely to cause injury or damage to the person, land or property of another person or the land or property of the Crown or a public authority,

is guilty of an offence.

Maximum penalty: 1,000 penalty units or imprisonment for 5 years, or both.

(2) A person who, without lawful authority, leaves whether temporarily or otherwise any fire which the person has lit or used in the open air before the fire is thoroughly extinguished is guilty of an offence.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units or imprisonment for 12 months, or both.

(3) Nothing in subsection (2) requires any person to extinguish a fire in the open air that has been lit or used for the purpose of cooking, heating or preparing meals or boiling water or for any similar purpose in accordance with the regulations if, at the time of the person leaving it, the fire continues to be used by some other person.