In the past 24 hours several fresh fires were deliberately lit near Beechworth, north of Melbourne, according to reports. The authorities have said they are close to arresting one man suspected to lighting a large fire in Gippsland, which killed 21 people.
John Brumby, the Victorian Premier, said the 100 police officers in Taskforce Phoenix were “close to finalising investigations” into the south Gippsland fires that have devastated huge swathes of the state.
He said it was incredibly hard to believe that people would be still lighting fires given the appalling death toll. Local media said police had a description of a car used by those allegedly responsible for the overnight blazes in Beechworth.
“There seems little doubt that these were deliberately lit. I think words escape us all when it comes to describing that deliberate arson,” he said.
The death toll from the fires stands at 181 but is expected to climb higher as 80 people are still missing.
“I’m not understanding why nobody has remotely suggested that this is the work of terrorists who have a grudge with Australia.” /// Well, its an American Tragedy that we can be stamped like sheeple as our President wishes. Other people are satisfied with garden variety old school crazy?
I’m sad to see Obama sell the stimulus package (sic) by appeals to terror==not of terrorists but of the unknown calamity that will fall if we don’t act RIGHT NOW!! The tax cuts are worse than pork when stimulus is the goal.
My sympathies to the Aussies.
In other fire news, there was a fire in a big new empty hotel in China. What I’d like to know is why it didn’t fall down right away like buildings do in America.
It doesn’t take terrorist to terrorize.
If they ever find out who did this, I’ll bet it turns out to be a couple of loners.
BTW. Chinese building don’t burn down. They are made of concrete. Just pray you are not in one during an earthquake.
The Australian nation is grief striken as the death toll now climbs to 181. Fire command anticipates the total death toll could exceed 300. These fires were hell on earth, nothing ever like it before. When the nation moves on from grief, there will be anger. This is a form of terrorism and those responsible should go on trial as terrorists.
Terrorists or not, it’s been a hellish hot summer there, better part of the nation’s a tinder box, the rest is already burnt. Perhaps the terrorists are using global warming to do attacks on western nations while we’re still reeling from the economic crisis. OR NOT. Maybe it’s caused by el niño, that means next summer it’ll be the northern hemisphere’s turn. Could be just me but all this crappy news is starting to make me paranoid.
I’ve often wondered if a terrorist bushfire campaign would ever happen. I suspect that more panic would be induced by taking responsibility for the fires. So far no one has done so. Besides, there are more than enough dickheads here in Victoria to account for this stupidity.
Ive never seen or felt anything like the heat in the vicious wind on Saturday when it all went off. I was truly hellish. Not too many global warming skeptics around here any more!
“I’m not understanding why nobody has remotely suggested that this is the work of terrorists who have a grudge with Australia. ”
John, as #1 indicated, its simply because none of us here in australia trust our government to tell the truth about pretty much anything, let alone something which we have seen all to clearly used to undermine civil and human rights, international law and simple decency in other countries where the ensconced polititians are so far divorced from their electorates that they can get away with just about any scheme to line their own pockets at the expense of the people who were tricked into electing them into office to begin with.
One of the out of control fires was just 60Km from where I live and the whole area was covered in smoke last saturday when the temps went beyond 115F. I don’t think anyone was seriously hurt in this particular blaze, unlike the tragedy that occurred in Marysville north of Melbourne where I have spent several winter holidays when we still had snow.
The authorities believe that 1 in 5 residents of the town lost their lives, simply staggering.
Why would everything have to be terrorist related?
A few sickos who like lighting fires was around long before it was popular to blame everything on a terrorist. Honestly I don’t think Australians think like the US. The world has changed and you do need to be aware of national security, but Australians don’t think everyone and everything is out to get us.
If McVeigh wasn’t a terrorist, neither are these culprits. A skin tone indicates terrorist ability, in case you haven’t noticed.
JCD, living in Australia bushfires are a fact of life. Every summer there are many fires and every year there are a few whackos that set some of them. The only difference was that this year there was the highest temperature ever recorded in Melbourne, after 3 weeks of very hot and dry weather. A hot dry Northerly wind whipped it up and a Gale force SE change drove it in unexpected directions.
The Kinglake fire, which did the most damage had actually been burning, but semi contained for half a week until the ultra-hot and windy day helped it break out.
If the police have called it as arson it means they have some idea who did it, otherwise they don’t state it openly. To call terrorism would just be a tactic for the government to sow fear. In the end it doesn’t matter what the motivations where. If someone lit it, the police will do what they can to track them down and prosecute them, regardless of their motives.
The word “terrorist” gets thrown around with all this baggage of fear attached. But really, why is a crime done for a cause any worse than a crime done without one?
I think many of us have a missdirected view of what terrorism is. As the the US learned with the Oklahoma Federal building bombing we learned that domestic terrorism can be worse then foreign. No doubt even screwed up teens can cause a lot of damage and death. I hope authorities will be abl to catch these people.
Ahem.
“AUSTRALIA has been singled out as a target for “forest jihad” by a group of Islamic extremists urging Muslims to deliberately light bushfires as a weapon of terror.”
http://www.theage.com.au/national/islam-group-urges-forest-fire-jihad-20080906-4b53.html?page=-1
#13 Good link Lou! Looks like they were expecting something like this to occur.
“While this maniac — or group of maniacs — will be caught,”
I hope so. They tend to NOT get caught in CA.
# 2 B. Dog said, “What I’d like to know is why it didn’t fall down right away like buildings do in America.”
They forgot to pour a few tons of jet fuel into the Chinese hotel… Moron
One simple reason; terrorists normally like to claim their horrible acts. They are proud of what they do and want to show off to the world that they were the ones who did it.
This is most likely someone local with sick pyromaniac tendencies. No need to read more into it unless some evidence to the contrary is provided.
Maybe it is because acts of terror or insurrection could invalidate insurance claims making the whole problem much greater for the people affected..
ssshh Mum’s the word.
God has singled out the Aussies for their wicked ways.
>> B. Dog said,
>> In other fire news, there was a fire in a big new empty hotel in China. What I’d like to know is why it didn’t fall down right away like buildings do in America.
Our buildings don’t routinely fall down when on fire — mostly only when the fire is caused by a fully-fuelled airliner flying into them.
Maybe the reason terrorists haven’t (yet) been blamed is because this doesn’t fit the M.O. of terrorism.
I remember that Fox “News” postulated that the last So. Cal. fires might be caused by terrorists even though it didn’t seem like terrorism not was there any evidence pointed that direction.
Perhaps, Australians are more clear-headed than we Americans.
#21, Greg,
Or maybe the Aussies don’t have the Republicans to hand out press releases.
#19 Only goes to show that a religous retard is a religous retard, doesn’t matter what accent or language they speak. It’s a shame there are so many of them and they’re always spouting off.
The arsonist idea is just a distraction, Australia’s forests are evolved to burn, the seeds of some trees only germinate in a bed of warm ash. The trees shed strips of bark, leaves and branches stuff that is basically kindling, fires are inevitable. It is not a matter of if they will burn but when.
Once you understand that, living with these forests becomes a matter of good bush management – plans that include periodic small controlled burns to get rid of the fuel load of bark, fallen branches and undergrowth in these areas.
Because the authorities are scapegoating a few undeniably despicable arsonists, and all the media attention is on that, no one is asking difficult questions about forest management strategies that may have reduced some of the cost to life and property.
If a terrorist is still defined as an individual of group that commits an act of violence (or threatens to) for a political motive then this is not terrorism. If it was politically motivated you would expect the terrorists to make demands or claim it is in response to something. If someone does they may have had nothing to do with it.
The first group on the television after (ambulance chasing) were the global warming crew (the first after the Port Arthur shootings were the anti-gun lobby). The Manson terrorists claimed their actions were in response to the environmental destruction of the time (they had not come up with global warming yet). They claim the holocaust (death by fire) was inevitable due to global warming induced heat wave conditions.
Double years indicate summer Dec. Jan & Feb.
– 1895–1896 – heat wave 437 dead
– 1907-1908 – heat wave 246 dead
– 1938-1939 – heat wave 438 dead, bush fire 71 dead
– 1983 – bush fire 75 dead
– 2009 – (speculative) heat wave 126, (confirmed) bush fire 181
There are many more, these are just the most extreme examples.
The point is we have had extreme weather recorded for more than 120 years and most of the deaths are elderly or sick, I used to ride home from school in 44˚C (and jump straight into the pool). Decrease in heat wave deaths is due to power usage, i.e. global warming causing air conditioning (many / most died this year due to power outages). Also the temp. record in Melbourne of 45˚C (record beaten by 0.8˚C) was followed just over a week later by 19˚C (don’t know if this is a record as it has no political value).
The areas affected by fires this year map well to the other years but now have much higher population densities. Bush fires are completely uncontrollable (like America’s tornados), if the wind had taken the fires 1 kilometer in any direction they would have caused either more (unlikely) or much less loss of life. If you look at photos of the fires of towns that are almost totally destroyed there are buildings untouched. When I was 10 years old we lived straight across from thousands of kilometers of bushland in a smallish town (40,000 people). There was a huge fire and it came to the other side of the road directly in front of my house (20 meters away) and then the wind changed and it rushed away again. There are always fires, luckily most of them are not where people live or the people get out before they arrive.
I live in South Australia and our heat wave ended (cold change 25˚C from 45˚C) the night of the height of the Victorian disaster (the death causing bush fires are usually a combination of S.A. and Vic. but we were spared this time).
I would suggest if it was arsonists they probably did not intend to cause death, many arsonists (who have been caught) in Australia either end up fighting the fires as they are volunteer fire fighters or are 20 something idiots that like the pretty colours. If it was arson / terrorism I would look first at Mansonite like environmentalists not cave dwellers with liver failure as the first suspects.
American definition of terrorism:
Any mayhem committed by by a non-Christian.
Another BS story. No facts, just what the cops say.
#13. Interesting.
Fear would make a great pet. It feeds itself.
Too bad it shits everywhere..
OMG OMG SHreek!!! SHREEK!!
The Mexicans err Australian terrorists are coming!!! AHHHHH
OMG OMG SHreek!!! SHREEK!!
The Mexicans err Australian terrorists are coming!!! AHHHHH
/pessimism 101
bah.. it was probably done over/near key water/aquifer areas to facilitate the creation of water shortage headlines (and legislation) coming soon at a paid mainstream media hack near you…
-s