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Originally Posted by nekokami
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That being said, why on earth would anyone want to be setting fires in the middle of a drought???
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To watch it all burn. This type of arson (bushfire) I suspect rarely extends beyond that when it comes to rational explanations. Except for the possibility of debilitating mental illness (which may remove judgement of consequences), most Australians know, over and over and over again, every "bushfire season", the consequences of bushfire arson. It would be someone of so little intelligence it's a wonder they remember to breathe who tried the "I didn't realise it would go so bad" excuse.
It should be noted though that these fires all occurred over largely seperate areas of the state. Temperatures were, over multiple days, well over 40C (104F) and Melbourne (the capital of the state) scored 46.4F (116F) on Saturday, and 90% of state hit the hottest temperatures on record that day (Victoria is between Minnesota and Michigan in size, or about the size of the United Kingdom). Couple this with extended, severe drought, the possibility that forest areas were not necessarily sufficiently "controlled" (eg. backburning) for a significant period, and you get forests, dry as tinder, filled to the brim with combustible material, just waiting for a car crash (which did set off one fire), sparks from a train, light focussed through a bottle, lightning, a casually discarded match...well, suffice to say arson isn't the only available culprit (though, from experience, likely a cause of some of the many fires).
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And I'm quite vague on Australian geography. Were the fires near any of our MR members?
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If I drove for two, full days, south on the freeway/highway through the state of New South Wales, I'd be into Victoria and in the range of the closest of the fires (around Beechworth). From there, you're looking between three and six hours drive to get to each of the other major outbreaks (Bendigo, Bunyip Ridge, Gippsland, Yarra Valley) in Victoria. For what it's worth, it'd likely take me the same time going north to get to north Queensland's floods. Queensland is my state, but I live in the most populous south-east corner. I'm not sure where nohmi lives, but she's in Queensland, so she's either similar distance or even further away from the bushfires.
I don't know where a lot of the other MR Aussies live. I've friends (the folks that found Oscar for me to "rescue") in the middle of it in Yarra Valley, but, though it reached and burnt down their fences, they're okay (and [crosses fingers] possibly now past major threat). It's possible you won't hear from them if they are in the midst as, aside from focus, communications are often knocked out for some time (Telstra - our major telecommunications infrastructrure provider, are talking
"hundreds of millions of dollars" to repair communications in bushfire and flood-hit areas).
Some of the stories coming out are pretty shocking. I keep thinking of all those who did exactly what you're supposed to do in a bushfire (be that staying put in your house, or in your car, and so on) and died anyway. It reminds me that the warnings and advice are to help reduce risk, but if the disaster is big enough well...it doesn't read the instruction manual before it crashes through.
Cheers,
Marc