NSW: Deja vu re-ignited for NSW bushfire victims

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NSW: Deja vu re-ignited for NSW bushfire victims

By Lisa Davies

SYDNEY, Dec 6 AAP - The residents of NSW could be forgiven for feeling an overwhelmingsense of deja vu this week as yet another round of bushfires ravaged the state.

The worst drought in living memory took hold through spring, devastating rural communities,then summer kicked in this week with weather just begging for bushfires.

A host of properties have been lost as strong winds, humidity lower than 10 per centand searing temperatures prevailed around the state, particularly in areas surroundingSydney.

All this leaves many with that sinking feeling, asking are they just unlucky?

As the fires broke out, NSW Premier Bob Carr was quick to point the finger at arsonistsand one teenager has already been charged with deliberately lighting fires in Sydney'ssouth-west.

But Professor Mark Findlay, a criminologist at Sydney University, said perhaps it wastime we stopped trying to find complex answers to simple problems.

He said while arsonists were certainly responsible for many bushfires, there certainlyhadn't been a firebug breeding program underway over the past five years.

"The fact is, the biggest cause of the fires out there today is the weather," he said.

"There isn't just hundreds more arsonists out there setting fire to things."

That's a view backed up by Stephen Lellyett, Bureau of Meteorology climatologist.

Mr Lellyett said the state was in the middle of an incredibly long, dry spell, withmany areas not seeing significant rains for up to eight months and many regions rainswere at their lowest levels on record.

He said with these conditions, we're very prone to fire outbreaks.

"These longer-than-normal, drier-than-normal conditions have dried out the availablefuel for fires (on the ground)," he said.

"The extended period of dryness for the fuel on the ground, coupled with the hot daytimetemperatures and the low humidities mean we're very vulnerable to fire outbreaks."

And while the community was praying for rain, thunderstorms wouldn't produce much reliefbecause lightning starts fires as much as rain helps dampen the intensity of a bushfire.

Prof Findlay also added that complacency was a feature of Australia's national psyche.

"We in Australia simply like to rely on the next person to do our job for us ... wedon't like to think about what we should do," he said.

He said despite repeated warnings from fire authorities about the optimum fire conditions,people in high danger areas refused to proactively prepare themselves.

"On the Tuesday (this week), the losses were high because people hadn't damped down,they hadn't cleared out their gutters, had their hoses ready," he said.

"The day after, when they stayed home and they were prepared the losses were less."

And as for those arsonists, Mr Findlay said the media coverage of the bushfires wouldfeed into most arsonists' motives.

As a result, when firebugs were caught deliberately lighting blazes causing extensivedamage, he suggested a more serious approach to their rehabilitation.

Community conferencing, although perceived as a soft approach to crime, would reallyconfront them with the damage they had caused, he said.

AAP ld/arb/mo/sb

KEYWORD: BUSHFIRES NSW BACKGROUNDER