A 52 year old homeless man has face Perth Magistrates Court after being charged following two deliberately lit fires outside the 6PR Radio Studios.

Fire alarms were set off about 10.15am last Sunday and staff at the Hay Street building in East Perth were evacuated, including the team working on the Bob Maumill Sunday radio program.

Firefighters arrived at the scene within minutes and extinguished the blaze before much damage was done.

The man has been charged with criminal damage.

At the time there were concerns the fires were racially motivated, after weekend presenters Jo McManus and Bob Maumill finished a heated debate about Islam just before the fire alarm went off. But police told station management on Thursday afternoon they were confident the fires had nothing to do with the Islam discussion. Security at the station is being reviewed.

Bob Maumill told WA Today, which is in the same building, that he and producer Rob Fletcher made sure everyone was evacuated before the pair left the building:

“Rob Fletcher and I walked down the fire exit stairs and we were going to go out the fire escape entrance onto Hay Street, but when we got there the whole tunnel was full of smoke… we did a u-turn and went out the main entrance where a larger fire had taken place which the fireys had extinguished.”