A man has been charged over starting the deadly Churchill bushfire in Gippsland, which killed 21 people.
The man was charged on three counts in Morwell Magistrates Court today - one of arson causing death, one of intentionally or recklessly causing a bushfire, and one of possessing child pornography.
He was transferred to Melbourne on Friday for his own safety and will reappear in Melbourne Magistrates Court next week.
The court imposed a suppression order on all details of his identity.
The almost-36,000ha Churchill fire in the Latrobe Valley region of Gippsland remains out of control, but is no longer posing a threat to communities in the region.
It has killed 12 people from the town of Callignee, four in Hazelwood and one each in Jeeralang and Koornalla.
Earlier today, local reports said an angry crowd had gathered at the police station where a 39-year-old Churchill man was being held, according to the Daily Telegraph website.
The latest arrest comes as outgoing Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon says investigators are closing in on arsonists believed responsible for bushfires near Melbourne on Thursday night.
Police were called to a fire in a paddock in the town of Baxter on the Mornington Peninsula, south of Melbourne, about 10.45pm AEDT on Thursday.
That blaze followed an earlier three-hectare scrub fire that began in the Yarra Flats at East Ivanhoe, closer to the city, about 3pm AEDT on Thursday.
Police have released an image of a man wanted for questioning over the Ivanhoe fire that threatened houses, disrupted traffic and sent a plume of smoke across several suburbs.
"Last night, we did, in fact, have two fires that were lit and in one case we have a suspect that we're talking to," Ms Nixon told the Nine Network.
"The other one we're very clear about who the person is."
She said police were also working around the clock in the pursuit of arsonists behind the deadly Marysville blaze.
"For us, it's a matter to continue to get information from the community, to work through it and to find these people as soon as we can," she said.
"We're very keen to do that as, obviously, the whole community wants us to."
