Aussie Police Begin Massive Arson Investigation Into Bushfires
Police in five Australian states have begun investigations into alleged arsonists responsible for helping fuel the deadly bushfires that have wracked the country this summer.
On Monday, police in NSW reported they had already caught 24 alleged firebugs accused of deliberately lighting bushfires in a catastrophic season that has so far killed 18 people in the country’s most populous state.
Almost five million hectares have burned in NSW since September, destroying 1482 homes and killing hundreds of millions of animals and livestock.
Two dozen people have allegedly risked prison sentences of up to 25 years by choosing to light bushfires, despite the potential to kill and cause millions of dollars of damage, Channel Nine News reports.
Last month police in the state of Queensland began their own criminal investigations into almost 100 firebugs believed to have deliberately started blazes that destroyed homes and consumed thousands of hectares of bushland.
Police revealed 103 of the destructive fires that tore through parts of Queensland since September were deliberately lit.
Figures obtained by news agency AAP and reported by the Brisbane Times reveal police had dealt with 98 people – 31 adults and 67 juveniles – for deliberately setting fires.
A 16-year-old boy found to have started a fire that razed 14 homes in central Queensland and dealt with under the state’s Youth Justice Act.
Two more teens, 14 and 15, were charged with endangering property by fire over a blaze that destroyed two homes and forced hundreds to flee while more than 120 fires are still being investigated and more people could be charged.
In the state of South Australia, ABC News reports two local men have been charged with deliberately lighting bushfires and have now faced court.
Separately, an elderly man charged with four counts of starting bushfires has been remanded in mental health custody until May.
Overall, across Australia police arrested 183 people for lighting bushfires across Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania in the past few months.
The link between arsonists and the deadly fires that devastate Australia every summer is well known and well documented, with the rate of deliberately lit fires escalating rapidly during the school holiday period.
The Conversation reports experts estimate about 85 percent of bushfires are caused by humans. A person may accidentally or carelessly start a fire, such as leaving a campfire unattended or using machinery which creates sparks.
Research has shown about 8 percent of officially recorded vegetation fires were attributed to malicious lighting and another 22 percent as suspicious. However, about 40 percent of officially recorded vegetation fires did not have an assigned cause.
When unassigned bushfires were investigated by fire investigators, the majority were found to be maliciously lit, the Conversation added.
Dr. Paul Read, co-director of the National Centre for Research in Bushfire and Arson, agrees. He said the great majority of bushfires are deliberately lit by “cunning, furtive and versatile criminals,” reports ABC News.
“About 85 percent are related to human activity, 13 percent confirmed arson and 37 percent suspected arson,” he said. “The remainder are usually due to reckless fire lighting or even just children playing with fire.”
Dr. Read said holidays and summer were a bad combination when it came to criminal fire starters.
“School holidays are a prime time for firebugs, but especially over summer,” he said. “The kids have got time to get out there and light, and the most dangerous adults choose hot days.”
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Andy Rowlands
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Good factual article.
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Mac Hoban
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This is bullshit from a fraudulent website that pretends to be scientific but is a front for extreme anti-scientific views denying the science around climate change.
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Herb Rose
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Nobody denies climate change. It is well established that the climate has changed in the past and continues to change.
The absence of science is in the belief that the human race is causing climate change. The belief that the surface of the Earth could radiate energy, have that energy decrease with distance, have that energy reflected back to the surface of the Earth and increase the energy of the surface of the Earth is truly stupid and is the foundation of AGW. It violates the first law of thermodynamics. An object cannot add energy to itself.
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JDHuffman
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Well stated, Herb.
Mac appears a little frustrated that his “anti-scientific” beliefs are so easily debunked.
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Andy Rowlands
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When you say ‘the science around climate change’ I presume you’re referring to the fraudulent, data-tampered fake science being peddled as fact to try and convince the public we’re all going to die in 12 years.
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James McGinn
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Mac Hoban:
This is bullshit from a fraudulent website that pretends to be scientific but is a front for extreme anti-scientific views denying the science around climate change.
James McGinn:
Mac, your hit and run tactics are cowardly.
http://www.thunderbolts.info/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=16329&start=150#p119465
Humans are delusional about H2O. And this delusion results in the following: 1) humans generally believe that H2O is simple and obvious and, 2) humans believe that our understanding of H2O is comprehensive and accurate, both in science and in general. The reality is that neither of these are true. Neither of these is remotely true. H2O is extremely complex and poorly understood by science. Currently there exists over 70 anomalies of H2O. That is 70 different observations about H2O (under various conditions) that are inconsistent with or completely unpredicted by theory. However, human delusion runs so deep that the meaning of anomaly has been altered in the context of H2O to essentially serve as an excuse for why theories of H2O fail to explain what is actually observed.
James McGinn / Solving Tornadoes
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tom0mason
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<em.”Overall, across Australia police arrested 183 people for lighting bushfires across Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania in the past few months. ”
183 dangerous miscreants and Green worriers ensuring that the data WILL fit their perceptions of a ‘Climate Crisis’?
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Andy Rowlands
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More than likely Tom. I suspect many of the adults were climate activists. I would guess the 19-year-old volunteer firefighter charged with starting seven fires was.
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George Cross
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Inquiries into political and religious links would be enlightening.
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George Cross
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http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/03/bushfire-jihad-in-australia
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Itz Me
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To find the biggest arsonists look no further than Federal, State and Local Govt departments that have consistently for years stopped sensible land management that has resulted in a massive fuel load of old dry dead timber.
These fires were guaranteed to happen with the green/UN eco loonies running this country but were nearly entirely preventable.
All Govt depts that have consistently for years helped bring this holocaust into being should all be charged with arson and accessory to murder. Half a billion animals dead and at least 30 people.
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Moffin
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Hi It’s you
There will be a parliamentary Inquiry or Royal Commission of Inquiry into the toasting of Indigenous flora and fauna in Australia as well as the toasting of some exotic homo sapiens.
I am uninformed of the toasting of Indian genus (genesis; indigenous homo
sapiens).
As Dr.Tim would point out, the results all come down to the “Terms Of Reference”.
Open ended terms of reference (unheard of I believe) would be an evolution to inquiry as well as a first cousin of truth and democracy, a second cousin of scientific multiple hypothesis. and the mother of ‘cumulative effect,
Moffin (Matt)
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