Trevglas

Just watching the local news: they now reckon most of the bushfires burning around the Gold Coast were deliberately started.

With the really dry weather we have had recently, and the high winds over the past 2 days, the last thing that is needed is some f**kwit chucking a cigarette butt away, or even actually deliberately starting these fires.

Personally, I reckon jail is too good for these idiots.

robertd

mind you,its a unbelivable sigtht to see such a big fire, but they are still fwits

Siren & Brian

Sometimes these deliberate fires are lit by volunteer firefighters.

chocaholic

Do you mean they're attempting backburning or that they're pyromaniacs or a combination

I really hate it when there's a total fireban and a fwit throws his cig butt out his ute window makes me want to spit (but that wouldn't be ladylike)

cresta57

Reminicent of Backdraft :scared:
The part timers here have been giving DNA samples to help catch a serial arsonist thought to be responsible for over 50 fires.

Pollyana

I remember being in tassie about 3 years ago, and there was a huge fire threatening the eastern shore of the Derwent in Hobart, plus several nearby spotfires. They were started by a local firefighter - he just had a fire obsession, and wanted to light them so he could help put them out. :scared:

Ceri

They reckon that it's the worst for 50 years regarding the high fire danger. Yesterday on the news, they said there were 27 major fires across the state... all deliberately started.

Most of these fires we have here in Aus are deliberately lit.. very few are natural ( caused by storm and strikes etc).
Last summer we had a few fires next to us.. What I noticed about it all was that most of the fires were in the school holidays - kids. The ones which weren't were around the early evening ( after school hours).
Where our fires were, there is no road for it to be cigarette butts chucked out of car windows. I took a walk into the bush after one big fire , where the fire had been was just far enough from a footpath for nobody to see someone lighting a fire.. and far enough from the homes for no person to see these people lighting them either. If I ever see anyone starting one of these fires that we get next to our home - little kids or not - I'll strangle the little b*stards! I don't know what goes through their heads. Even if they don't care a sh*te for human life and property.. they could at least have some compassion for the animal life in these reserves which they hurt.

I blame the parents for these kids.. perhaps if they changed laws for parents to be fined for their kids actions ,you'd see less fires .So it's no good saying jail them.. laws need to be changed for parents to take responsibility for their childrens actions

chocaholic

Oh I was totally unaware that most fires were started on purpose. Without even thinking of human life being endangered, what about all the personal belongings that could be destroyed - things that people have worked hard for and things of sentimental value - oh it just makes you sick

Ceri

I don't really care about possessions..most possessions can be replaced with insurance ( bar the sentimental objects that can't be replaced). What gets up my goat - people lose their lives! I think it was last year , when one woman died falling off her roof. she was hosing down her house to protect it from the fire.. another where a few firemen died.. think that was in Sydney that one.

What also makes me mad.. these reserves and bush land hold so many animals.. they suffer. koalas are the worst ones.. they can't escape the same.

These people have no regard for human or animal life.

There are no storms here at this moment in time for them to start naturally. Nearly most fires here turn out out be deliberately started.. either by someone physically lighting a fire for "fun" ( also backburning that's gone wrong, and farmers clearing their land too) , and cigarette butts being chucked.

cheers

owieb

I know this kind of thing used to go on in the UK.

I used to be a retained firefighter in the UK. We only got paid a basic "retained fee" which was a few thousand a year, all other payment was from attending incidents and training. There were several instances where firefighters would deliberately start fires so that they would get called out and thus get more money.

Luckily most of the ones we attended like this were just bin fires or skip fires, but they can quite easily get out of control.

Note sure how the volunteer firefighters work out here, whether they get paid or not.