A 13-YEAR-OLD boy responsible for lighting a fire at Mt Clear in which 31 hectares of bushland was burnt out has been released on probation.The boy, who cannot be named, was playing with a lighter that started the fire in scrub near Tinworth Avenue about 4.45pm on New Year's Eve last year.He pleaded guilty in a children's court in March to one count each of criminal damage by arson and recklessly causing a bushfire.The court was told yesterday through a report that the boy was unlikely to be a habitual fire lighter. The boy's family had moved to suburban Melbourne to escape the bad influence in Ballarat.Another boy, 11, was charged over the fire, which involved more than 250 firefighters and seven aircraft that worked to contain the fire.Police spoke to the two boys about the cause of the fire on January 1, and they volunteered to take officers to where it started.During an interview the boys stated they went into the bush to get a wheel off car when they started playing with a lighter which started a fire. The pair stomped on it before walking home and did not tell anyone about it. Thirty minutes later they saw smoke coming from the bush.The 13-year-old boy denied an assertion that they lit the fire to destroy fingerprints on the car. He was not convicted.