DHAKA: Fire officials defended Australia’s defence department on Thursday after investigators revealed a military training exercise ignited the largest of the wildfires that have torn across the nation’s most populous state over the past week.

The Rural Fire Service said Wednesday that one of the more than 100 fires that have burned since last week began at a defence department training area as a result of ‘live ordnance exercises’.

The fire it sparked near the city of Lithgow, west of Sydney, has burned 47,000 hectares and destroyed several houses, but no injuries or deaths were reported from the blaze.

In a statement, acting defence minister George Brandis said the military was cooperating with investigators, reports france24.com.

Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said the defence department’s actions were obviously an accident.

‘It wasn’t deliberate; it was a side effect of a routine activity, it would appear, and clearly there was no intention to see fire start up and run as a result of that activity,’ Fitzsimmons said. ‘There is no conspiracy here’.

Meanwhile, officials said a fixed-wing aircraft helping fight a fire near Ulladulla, south of Sydney, crashed Thursday morning.

The fire service said rescue crews were trying to reach the remote crash site.

BDST: 1954 HRS, OCT 24, 2013
RoR/JCK