Mr Banner was granted police bail and has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and is set to return to court later this month. The RFS said it had immediately stood down Mr Banner pending the outcome of his case and had a "zero tolerance" approach to arson. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video "Our members will be rightly angry that the alleged actions of one individual can tarnish the reputation and hard work of so many," RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said in a statement on Tuesday. The fires police allege were lit by Mr Banner are not the blazes that raged through the South Coast over the New Year holiday period.

This fire season, police have taken legal action - ranging from cautions to charges - against 180 people including 24 people charged over deliberately lit bushfires, 53 who allegedly failed to comply with a total fire ban and 47 who allegedly discarded a lit cigarette or match. A blaze at Mangrove Mountain in December Credit:Wolter Peeters Speaking at RFS headquarters on Tuesday, NSW Police Force Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys APM said police were monitoring the start of fires, whether intentional or accidental. "I know that all of those people aren't [alleged] arsonists in a sense, I know a lot of them were doing things like using fireworks or lighting fires to camp or cook food or young children, in fact, that got the benefits of the Young Offenders Act and quite rightly so," he said. "I know all of those people are not people out there trying to kill people or destroy houses. Police are well aware that we need to take action against people, whatever that might be, in this time and it is particularly a heightened risk of fire activity and we've seen the devastation it causes.

Loading "We make no apologies for being so vigilant about that." Among others recently charged was a 51-year-old man accused of lighting a blaze to protect his cannabis crop near Ebor, in the Northern Tablelands, in mid-November. Police allege the man was attempting to backburn for the protection of his illegal crop and made no attempt to control the blaze. Another man, Chad Joseph Musgrave, is set to reappear before a Belmont magistrate on Wednesday after being refused bail over allegations he deliberately lit several fires throughout Lake Macquarie, south of Newcastle.