Two men are being questioned about looting and possible arson that started at least two of the fatal fires.
I firmly bleeve in the application of the death penalty for arsonists - how are they any different from the terrorists who set off the bombs in Bali!
tac
www.ovgrs.org
I think you will find that was possibly 100 people of a community of 500 people.
Still terrible.
Tell me you can watch this without a tear and I’ll call you a liar…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XSPx7S4jr4
tac
www.ovgrs.org
“A fair trial at 9am and hang them at 9.15.”
Too compasionate, give them to the surviving relatives. If there are none, then give them the Dunlop neckless, seeing as they like fire so much.
Arson suspect faces victims’ anger
Last Updated: Friday, 13 February 2009, 08:50 GMT- Search: Australia wildfires arrest
A man has been arrested in connection with a wildfireA man charged with deliberately starting one of the wildfires that killed a total of more than 180 people in Australia had to be taken into protective custody to guard him from angry victims.
Police said the man, whose identity is being kept secret, faced one count of arson causing death and intentionally lighting a wildfire near the town of Churchill that killed at least 21 people. It was one of hundreds of fires that raged through south-eastern Victoria last Saturday leaving 7,000 people homeless and razing entire towns.
The suspect also was charged with possessing child pornography.
The disaster’s official death toll is 181, but efforts to find and identify victims are continuing and officials expect the final tally to exceed 200. More than 1,800 homes and 1,500 square miles of forests and farms were burned.
tac
www.ovgrs.org
Man, if some ass started these…
Jon.
Seems to me they’d burn them at the stake at 9:15
Australia wildfire suspect named
Last Updated: Monday, 16 February 2009, 13:32 GMT- Search: Brendan Sokaluk wildfire
The only person so far accused of lighting one of Australia’s deadly wildfires has been named publicly as officials urged a nation outraged by the alleged arson to let justice take its course.
Brendan Sokaluk, a 39-year-old who reportedly once served as a volunteer fighter, has been kept at a secret location by police since his arrest last week in connection to blazes which swept Victoria state because of fears for his safety.
Sokaluk was arrested on Friday and charged with one count of arson causing death and one of lighting a wildfire in connection to a blaze known as the Churchill fire. He faces a maximum sentence of 25 years on the first charge, and 15 years on the second. He was also charged with possessing child pornography, which carries a five-year maximum sentence.
Hot, dry and windy conditions on February 7 fanned dozens of fires into raging infernos that reduced entire towns to ashes. The confirmed death toll is 181 but is expected to exceed 200. More than 1,800 homes were destroyed and 7,500 people displaced.
tac
www.ovgrs.org
189 confirmed fatalities and approximately 29 still unaccounted for. One alarming outcome of this catastrophe is the part that conservationists have had in the final tally. It was illegal to clear houses and the roadsides of standing/fallen timbers, so that vegetation grew right up to a dwelling and littered the sides of roads. In the evacuation, burning fallen trees blocked many evacuation routes. Tourism is the main drawcard in the area and governments were reluctant to enact legislation to limit ‘fuel’ by the roadside, or at peoples’ backdoors.
An owner of a dwelling was fined around $30,000 by his local council, last year, for clear felling 290 trees out of the 10,000 trees on his property. His was the only home that was not destroyed in the area. Wilderness experts state that the forests were not the cause of the fire, it was a combination of ten years of drought and unusually hot days, combined with strong winds. No matter how many arsonists strike matches, it always needs fuel for a fire to start. One of the major fires, that accounted for the bulk of the deaths, was started by a high voltage electric cable that snapped in the wind and set fire to surrounding grassland. As the electricity commission has limited financial liability, the state government is expected to bear the brunt of class actions being sought.
Hey Tim.
Don’t come the raw prawn with me.
Back burning and fuel clearing are not officially illegal in Victoria.
In fact last year 150,000 acres were so treated by the State of Victoria.
Here are the requirements of the Maroondah Council.
http://www.maroondah.vic.gov.au/BurningOff.aspx
It is also a fact that, the safe days during which such clearing and backburing can be carrired out have been severely reduced, because of the overall rise in temperatures in the last few years.
BTW the Greens have publicly stated they DO support controlled burning off and fuel removal.
Here is one point they have made.
Tony,
when the head of the CFA (Victoria) states that in the last ten years, that only 2% of Victoria’s area has been ‘backburned’ to control fuel buildup, then either they are hamstrung by local and state government legislation or they are totally useless. Eyewitness reports directly blame some deaths on fuel buildup on the sides of firetrails, exit routes, either trapping motorists fleeing the fires or preventing escape. They also claim that local government regulations forbid them cleaning up the roadsides of fuel or tree clearing to make dwellings safer. Roadsides were littered with fallen timbers and fuel buildup prior to the fires. The Royal Commission will get to the facts of the matter and hopefully some benefit will come out of this.
If the fuel buildup was caused by politics, then it is not just the arsonist(s) who should go to jail. Some very negligent politicos should follow.
N
Tim,
I didn’t say there was no build up of fuel.
I am saying you can’t just say it is illegal to burn off, or blame it all on the Greens.
Neither are true.
Roll on the Royal Commission on this disaster.
I’ll tell you one thing for sure, the Pollies will be completely exonerated.
Sir Henry Bolte once said; “Never set up a Royal Commission on anything, unless you know what the outcome is going to be”.
Tony,
Premier Brumby has stated that anyone who wants a say will have the opportunity to say it. Pigs can fly as well. Also the terms of the commission will be very broad allowing all issues to be dealt with (?). We know that the relevant authorities will be ignored as regards culpability and at the end of the day, most people simply want to rebuild and get on with their lives.
As regards fuel buildup, residents have commented that local regulations and local government enforcement officers prevented residents from clearing roadsides of fuel buildup. There has to be a sensible plan in process to appease both the residents (personal safety) and the tourism industry (dollars).Yes, residents have made those comments.
That does not mean clearing and burning off is illegal in Victoria and NONE has been carried out. Obviously not enough though.
Neither does it mean the official policies of The Greens should be entirely to blame.
With thousands of homes to be rebuilt. The bulding industry will boom in Victoria. As it always does after such disasters.