![12yo guilty over Mt Clear blaze 12yo guilty over Mt Clear blaze](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-agfeed/731419.jpg/r0_0_400_263_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A 12-YEAR-OLD boy was playing with a lighter that started a fire at Mt Clear in which 31ha of bushland was burnt out and homes threatened.
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The fire began in scrub near Tinworth Ave about 4.45pm on New Year's Eve last year.
More than 250 firefighters and seven aircraft worked to contain the fire for more than three hours.
The boy, who cannot be identified, was one of two boys charged over the fire.
He yesterday pleaded guilty in a Children's Court to one count each of criminal damage by arson and recklessly causing a bushfire.
The police prosecutor told the court police spoke to the two boys about the cause of the fire on January 1, and they volunteered to take officers to the site where it started.
He said that during an interview the boy stated they went into the bush to get a wheel off a Magna sedan when they started playing with a lighter which started a fire.
The prosecutor said the pair stomped on it before walking home and did not tell anyone about it.
Half-an-hour later, they saw smoke coming from the bush.
The 12-year-old boy denied an assertion that they lit the fire to destroy fingerprints on the car and told police that his actions were stupid.
The boy's lawyer told the court he was currently unsettled and was not attending school.
She urged the court for a children's court clinical report to be prepared.
The magistrate told the boy, whose mother was supporting him in court, that he had a future ahead of him and he had to start acting like a 12-year-old.
She requested a children's court clinical report to be prepared and ordered him to return to court on May 10.
The second boy, 11, will appear in a Children's Court on April 16 for a further mention.
He faces one count each of intentionally causing a bushfire and intentionally destroying property.