BUSHFIRES raging around Victoria did not stop pranksters from lighting a fire in the middle of a road at Cockatoo early Sunday morning.
Paper was set alight on Bedford Road at 5am.
Pakenham Detective Sergeant Phil Jury said the fire fortunately did not spread, but warned that police took a dim view of such “mindless stupidity”.
“You just don’t know what can happen. If embers had got into the scrub it could be a disaster,” he said.
Police warned that severe penalties, including lengthy jail terms, had been introduced for people lighting fires on days of total fire ban.
With the fires around the state expected to burn for months, Sgt Jury said the time was definitely not right for acts of “mindless stupidity”.