A FORMER Wagga man who got drunk and set fire to cars, a boat and the back of a Wollongong house while two people were asleep inside has been jailed for at least two years.
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Steven Buckland was living at his brother’s house in Parkes Street, Oak Flats, when he went for a walk in the early hours of November 20 last year, armed with a Bic lighter.
He wandered into Leamington Road, where he used the lighter to set fire to the rear of a Ford Laser parked out the front of a house. He then went into the front yard of the property, unraveled a hose and tried to douse the fire.
The home owners came outside and told him to leave.
Within the space of a few minutes, Buckland had set fire to two more vehicles – a Mazda hatchback and a boat – in the same street. Emergency services arrived and extinguished the fires.
A short time later Buckland headed into the back yard of a family home on Parkes Street, where he set fire to the rear deck of the house, causing a massive blaze that destroyed a bedroom, a laundry and a pergola.
He was still on the scene when emergency services arrived. Neighbours identified him to police, describing him as “fat and really drunk” and wearing a “flanno” (flannelette) shirt.
Buckland was arrested and taken to Lake Illawarra Police Station.
While in custody, he pulled out the lighter, which had been wedged “under his genitals” and tried to set fire to the station walls.
In court on Friday, Buckland’s lawyer, Lemar Miakhel, said his client had a bizarre fascination with fire – and a large problem with alcohol.
“There’s a clear need for him to be rehabilitated in terms of his alcohol use,” Mr Miakhel said.
Magistrate Michael Stoddart sentenced Buckland to three years jail, with a two-year non-parole period.
He also ordered him to pay $9606 in compensation.
Rebecca Goodchild, whose parents were asleep in the Parkes Street home when Buckland set fire to it, said the past few months had been a difficult for her family.
“There hasn’t been a day go by where they haven’t done something to do with the fire, whether it’s cleaning, or talking to the insurance company,” she said.
She thanked neighbours who helped her parents escape the blaze that night.
“If it wasn’t for them they wouldn’t have gotten out of the house uninjured.”
This story first appeared in the Illawarra Mercury.
