A homeless man has been charged with five counts of arson after allegedly lighting a series of bushfires in Perth’s inner suburbs.
Police arrested the 41-year-old of no fixed address at the scene of the latest blaze in Kings Park late on Thursday.
That fire came dangerously close to apartment buildings that overlook the Swan River and city centre before fire crews contained it.
The man is accused of setting fire to vegetation on a steep embankment that skirts the large park on Mount Eliza near Jacob’s Ladder.
Investigators say the man is also responsible for three other fires in the park on October 24, along with a blaze in grassland near a nursing home in the affluent suburb of Nedlands on the same day.
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Those fires in the park also threatened homes and rained ash on nearby homes before two dozen fire crews brought it under control.
Kings Park is one of the world’s largest inner city parks and is about 400ha in size and 10km around.
The man was charged with five counts of wilfully light or cause to be lit a Fire likely to injure or damage.
He is scheduled to appear in the Perth Magistrates Court on Friday.