A Wollongong man has been charged for allegedly setting his own house alight –completely destroying the property.
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The blaze lit up a Jutland Avenue cottage about 12.50am Thursday.
Police later arrested the home’s owner – a 74-year-old man - and charged him with malicious damage by fire.
ABC Illawarra has reported that the man was involved in a property dispute with his wife and that this motivated the alleged arson.
The man received a Federal Court order earlier this week to hand the house over to his wife, and set it on fire instead, according to the report.
The man had returned to the property by 12.30pm Thursday, when the Mercury visited.
He fielded questions from curious neighbours and, with the house still smouldering, busied himself in the rear garage and an adjoining granny flat.
“I don’t know,” he told the Mercury, when asked about the circumstances surrounding the blaze.
“I am here moving things out, that’s it.”
The home sits close to the Coniston/Wollongong border in a quiet neighbourhood.
Fire and Rescue NSW extinguished the blaze; some residents were evacuated as a precaution.
Firefighters returned to the street on Thursday afternoon when the contents of the home began to smoulder, filling the street with smoke again.
Wollongong station officer Ed Melinz said the second visit was brief.
“There was a small amount of smoke issuing from the fire last night,” he said.
“There’s some remnant smouldering of material from a wardrobe in the house.”
A neighbour, Luke Sullivan said he awoke about 1am on Thursday to witness the the fire at its peak.
“It was really big, then it got to the roof,” he said.
“With the wind, the smoke was everywhere.”
Another neighbour reported waking to her bedroom filled with blue and red lights.
“You could hear it [the fire] crackling,” she said.
“It’s an old couple that lives there. They’ve been there for years.”
No one was hurt in the blaze. Neighbours were surprised at news the home’s owner had been accused of lighting the blaze.
“He’s a very nice, quiet man,” one resident told the Mercury.
The man was granted conditional bail to appear at Wollongong Local Court on August 31.
