A 19-year-old volunteer fire fighter in Australia has been charged with arson and accused of lighting seven fires in the Bega Valley area, New South Wales.

New South Wales has suffered from a horrific bush fire crisis in recent weeks, with six people killed, 600 homes destroyed and almost 1.7 million hectares of land burnt through.

The teen volunteer with the Rural Fire Service, Blake William Banner, allegedly lit a fire on Tuesday afternoon next to the Bega river, left the area and returned to fight the fire for the RFS.

He was arrested at a Tarraganda fire shed within two hours of the fire, and was charged with causing the fire as well as six others since Oct 17.

On Wednesday he appeared before Bega Local Court Wednesday and was granted conditional bail, to return to the court on Dec 17.