RFS volunteer, teen, charged over fires

Three people, including a former volunteer firefighter and a teenage boy, have faced court charged with deliberately lighting fires in separate incidents during the extreme heatwave conditions in NSW.

Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons has slammed the alleged fire bugs - males aged 13, 32 and 40 - for the "heinous crimes".

Police say fires were deliberately lit at Mango Creek on the Central Coast on Sunday, at Orange on Saturday and at Nabiac on the mid north coast on Friday.

Ricky Kenneth Ballard-Lestrange faced court in Taree on Monday charged with two counts of intentionally causing fire and being reckless to its spread in relation to the Nabiac fires.

The 32-year-old is a former Rural Fire Service volunteer and had two children aged under 10 with him at the time he allegedly lit the fires, the Newcastle Herald reports.

Ballard-Lestrange entered a plea of not guilty on Monday and was remanded in custody to reappear in the same Taree court next week.

He was arrested on Sunday afternoon after two fires were deliberately lit at Nabiac and police acted on information from witnesses who said a white van was seen near the fires.

Emergency crews extinguished the fires and no buildings were damaged.

Separately a 13-year-old boy was due to face a children's court on Monday accused of starting a fire in Orange.

Police say a witness told them they saw the teenager, who was with a group of friends, light a grass patch in an industrial area of Orange on Saturday evening.

The group fled, but the boy was later charged at Orange police station with destroying property, setting fire to the property of another and failing to comply with direction of the minister.

The fire was extinguished after it damaged 100 already-wrecked motor vehicles.

A 40-year-old man was arrested on Sunday on the Central Coast after fire crews were called to a blaze in Mango Creek.

The man was charged with setting fire to land during a total fire ban, intentionally causing a fire and being reckless as to its spread.