A man was arrested over one of the devastating bushfires in Australia, according to local police on Friday.

A police spokesperson said that they had a man in custody who was being questioned over the bushfires happened in Churchill.

The Churchill fire has scorched almost 36,000 hectares of land and claimed more than 20 lives. It is still burning but no longer threatening to communities there.

Local reports said the suspect was a 39-year-old man from Churchill and he will be charged with arson causing death.

Besides Churchill fire, the police believed that the Marysville fire, which caused over 100 deaths, was also attributed to arson after some investigations.

According to local newspaper The Age, the police were also hunting a firebug in Melbourne after a grassfire burnt about six hectares along the Yarra River at Ivanhoe East.

(Xinhua News Agency February 13, 2009)