Australia fires

[Robert]

Oh what a tragedy. Some 400 fires are currently burning, as I'm typing this. This is terrible.


WHITTLESEA, Australia — Police declared incinerated towns crime scenes Monday, and the prime minister spoke of “mass murder” after investigators said arsonists may have set some of Australia’s worst wildfires in history. The death toll rose to 166.

There were no quick answers, but officials said panic and the freight-train speed of the fire front — driven by 100 kilometres-an-hour winds and temperatures as high as 47 C — probably accounted for the unusually high toll.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, visibly upset during a television interview, reflected the country’s disgust at the idea that arsonists may have set some of the 400 fires that devastated Victoria state, or helped them jump containment lines.

“What do you say about anyone like that?” Rudd said. “There’s no words to describe it, other than it’s mass murder.”

[Ch0jin]

Thankfully it's a long way from anyone I know.

Even though we get severe bush fires almost every year somewhere in Australia, they never get less tragic. There are many stories surfacing and most of them are too horrible to read. Stories of fathers leaving their families "safe" at home and going out to fight the fires and coming back to find everything burned to the ground. Whole neighborhoods who were told they should stay and defend their property if they felt they could handle it, and then discovered tragically that they could not handle it.

There often is a strong media focus on whether any of the fires were deliberately lit because, well they often are. For example late last year click (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24662374-421,00.html)

Floods in the north and fires in the south and people tell me living where I do in Sydney is dangerous.....

[sunvalleylaw]

Just awful. Don't know what else to say.

[thekiwidisciple]

These fires are about 30km from my house. It's very sad and angers me to think they were litten deliberately..one by a firefighter!

[tot_Ou_tard]

Really horrible.

Firefighters are often the arsonists. Sad, but true. There are unstable minds in every profession. An unstable mind with an attraction to fire is a very, very bad mix.

[oldguy]

Deplorable , regardless of who started them. Yes, it's shocking a firefighter could do such a thing, but for anyone to be involved in such a wretched act is contemptable.

[Spudman]

Fires from space. There are more images on the site other than this.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires/main/world/australiafire_20090209.html

[evenkeel]

I had heard news reports that indicated possibly, some of the fires were the result of arson. Guess it's true, and by a firefighter. Sad, angry... really heart wrenching situation.

[Spudman]

I had heard news reports that indicated possibly, some of the fires were the result of arson. Guess it's true, and by a firefighter. Sad, angry... really heart wrenching situation.

I heard that too. That is really sad.
I think I remember some of the California fires being a result of the same behavior.

[Tone2TheBone]

Maybe they're so bored just laying around waiting for a fire that they go and start one somewhere?