I heard someone on the radio today, he was a 'fire ecologist' and he explained that firstly there's been 10 years of droughts and all the dead leaves and trees, 'litter' its called, has built up and acted as kindling for the fires. Also the trees have oils like eucalyptus which burn very quickly and he also said there hasn't been enough controlled fires carried in recent years to burn away the excess 'litter'.
This guy also explained the motivation behind the arsonists in that everyone is mesmorised by fire a little bit and some people that are pyromaniacs will start a fire then watch it develop from a hill-top.
It was really interesting. The also read out a report by someone who had to escape the flames and lost their house.
10-02-2009, 12:41 AM
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