Arson is suspected as the possible cause of a series of brush fires which have afflicted St. George's Parish in the last year, including a large blaze that firefighters battled for more than an hour last night in an area of Ferry Reach in St. George's Parish.

Firefighter Sgt. Colin Swan, who is based at the Clearwater station, said there were suspicions that someone had deliberately started the fire, which destroyed approximately 2,000 square feet of woodland around the area of Lover's Lake.

He said this was just one of at least four brush fires that firefighters had responded to this summer, all of which seemed to have been started deliberately.

The largest one happened two weeks ago, he said, in an area of about 9,000 square feet of woodland next to the St. George's Golf Club.

Sgt. Swan said: "It is undetermined what caused these fires. But we have suspicions that they might have been started deliberately because, in this one for example, we found some logs in an area which would usually have been quite inaccessible."

He added that he had lost count of the number of brush fires which firefighters have had to deal with since last summer, most of which were much smaller than last night's inferno.

He explained that eleven men in three trucks responded to the blaze at around six p.m. and battled it for more than an hour before it was extinguished.

On the cause of it, Sgt. Swan warned against jumping to conclusions but added: "From experience right now we're leaning towards thinking that someone is going around starting these fires deliberately."