Bushfires in Victoria kill 14 more deaths feared

[Tay_]

A COUNTRY couple has been charged with stealing cars from people after allegedly claiming they were destined for bushfire victims.

Bendigo CIU detectives today charged 48-year-old Christine Pearson with 11 counts of theft of a motor car, eight of obtaining property by deception and one of carrying on a business in the trading of motor cars.

Her husband Geoffrey Pearson, 55, had earlier been hit with seven charges of theft and five counts of obtaining property by deception.

It is expected police will allege the couple, of Neilborough, obtained the cars from people after telling the owners they would be handed over to bushfire victims.

They were allegedly then repaired by kind-hearted mechanics who thought they, too, were helping the relief effort.

Police claim the vehicles were then sold on an online auction site.

Ms Pearson appeared before a bail justice yesterday and was bailed to appear in the Bendigo Magistrates’ Court on July 2.

Mr Pearson faced Bendigo Magistrates' Court and was remanded in custody.

Police want to hear from any other people who donated a vehicle or mechanical repairs after the February fires.

Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or visit the website www.crimestoppers.com.au

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...78-661,00.html

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NEW figures reveal 113 people died in houses during the Black Saturday bushfires and 27 were killed outside homes.

A profile identifying how and where people died in the devastating fires has emerged during the bushfires royal commission today.

Victoria Police Detective Inspector Paul O'Halloran, who heads the Phoenix Taskforce, presented data to the commission collected by Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) teams following the February 7 fires.

Of the 173 people who died, 113 perished in houses, while 27 died outside homes, the data shows.

Eleven people died in cars, five on roads, five near cars and others were killed in sheds, garages, reserves and hospital following the fires.

It also shows 100 men and 73 women died as a direct or indirect result of the fires.

At this stage the taskforce has concluded 169 people died from injuries suffered in the fires or from fire itself, and four people perished with injuries associated with the bushfires

The information compiled by police was based on coronial records, statements from next of kin at scenes, telephone calls before the fires, and also reliance on forensic sketches and photographs, the commission heard.

The Phoenix taskforce - which remains active - was established to investigate the deaths from six fires in Kilmore East, Murrindindi, Churchill, Bendigo, Beechworth and Redesdale on February 7

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574...80-421,00.html

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CHANGES laid out in the Royal Commission interim report won't remove one major risk in fire season, an expert says.

The 51 recommendations in the report, released today, focus on establishing early fire risk warnings, relocation plans to include fire refuges and a reorganisation of fire services command.

While those recommendations will considerably help, it is dangerous to assume they will eliminate a known risk that turns small bushfires into out-of-control infernos, said David Packham, a former CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology forecaster of fire conditions

"The fire doesn't know who's in charge and it doesn't care,'' he said following the release of the report.

Mr Packham said the overwhelming problem is the high fuel loads of wood and brush laying on the ground of Victoria's forests.

But the commission made no recommendations about fuel reduction, despite the overwhelming number of submissions focusing on the need for greater back-burning.

"The state of the fuels leads directly to the state of the threat,'' he said. "It will not be all right as we go into next season. It will be just as dangerous.''

Fuel reductions will be discussed in the second part of the commission's hearings.

A report on those findings won't be released until July 2010 - after this fire season.

Mr Packham said a strong fuel management plan could drastically reduce the state's fire risk.

The interim report criticised the controversial "Stay or Go" policy and said a lack of emphasis on the risks associated with staying to defend properties led many to believe they would able to adequately fight the fires.

In its report, the commission also said that it was the responsibility of people who live in bushfire-prone areas to be aware of the fire risks and to ensure the safety of themselves and those in their care.

"We don't want this tragedy to ever happen again,'' Premier John Brumby said in a press conference this afternoon. "We all need to learn from this terrible disaster."

The commission followed the worst bushfires in Australian history that destroyed more than 2000 homes and burned 430,000ha of land.

The report's 51 recommendations focus on communications and warning systems, the "Stay or Go" policy, community fire refuges and the roles of emergency services.

The commission found "there were a number of weaknesses and failures with Victoria's information and warning systems on 7 Febraury.

"Warnings were often delayed which meant that many people were not warned at all or the amount of time they had to respond to the warnings was much less that it should be."

Warnings should include information about the fire's severity, location, predicted direction and the likely time of impact, the interim report recommended.

Research should also be commissioned to develop a fire severity scale, similar to the cyclone categories 1-5.

The commission recommended a number of changes to the controversial "Stay or Go" policy, finding there was "insufficient emphasis" on the risks associated with defending a property.

"For those who choose to stay and defend, the risks should be spelt out more plainly, including the risk of death," the report said.

The commission recommended CFA literature and advice emphasise the risks involved with defending property and advise that some properties would not be defendable in some situations.

The report said those in bushfire-prone areas should be advised that there were psychological impacts involved with staying and that children should not stay behind.

The commission also examined the role of community refuges and said the lack of refuges increased the danger to those in bushfire-prone areas.

"The current lack of refuges fails to provide for those who find themselves in danger when their plans fail, are overwhelmed by circumstances, change their minds or have no plan," the report said.

"A new approach, which is capable of providing more options for the community, should be embraced."

Federal and state governments should investigate whether it is technically possible to send warning messages to mobile phones, the second phase of a national telephony-based warning system, by the 2009-10 bushfire season, the report says.

Guidelines should also be developed for the use of fire station sirens to alert communities to the threat of bushfires.

The commissioners - chairman Bernard Teague, Susan Pascoe and Ron McLeod - also recommended the State Government identify "neighbourhood safer places'' for people to seek refuge at during fires.

The commissioners backed away from using the term evacuation, instead preferring to use relocation.

The commission made a number of recommendations, including:

The broadcast of official warnings be expanded outside the ABC to include commercial radio and television.

Warnings focus on the severity, locations, predicted direction and likely time of impact of a fire.

The risk of death associated with staying to defend your home be given a greater emphasis in the Stay or Go policy.

That leaving early be promoted as the best option during a bushfire.

The establishment of a fire danger warning system similar to cyclones and the expansion of a rating beyond "extreme".

The commission also recommended an overhaul of the State Emergency Response Plan, finding it "does not clearly designate the agency responsible for issuing warning and recommending relocation."

"Diffuse or unclear responsibility for warnings and relocation is at best unhelpful and at worst life-threatening in an emergency," the report said.

The commission recommended the CFA chief officer be given responsibility for issuing warnings and providing information about the bushfire risk.

Premier Brumby said there was a high degree of overlap with the report's recommendations and measures the government had already taken

"Victorians in communities at risk of bushfires can be assured that work is already under way on the bulk of the measures recommended in the interim report," he said.

"A small number of recommendations require further consideration. Our government will provide a detailed response to Victorians on all recommendations by Monday August 31.

But he warned the forthcoming bushfire season, which is just 72 days away, had the potential to be worse than the one just experienced.

The commission will commence further hearings next Monday and will deliver its final report by July 31 next year.

[Tay_]

The man charged over Black Saturday's fatal Churchill blaze is now facing 10 counts of arson causing death.

Brendan James Sokaluk, 39, appeared briefly in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday for a committal mention.

He is charged over the February 7 fire in Victoria's east which claimed 11 lives.

Sokaluk, who appeared in court via videolink from prison, swung from side to side in his chair throughout the brief hearing.

The court heard his pre-trial committal hearing will be held next May and run for six weeks.

Sokaluk made no application for bail during the hearing and will remain in custody.

He previously was facing only one charge of arson causing death.

He is also charged with one count of recklessly or intentionally starting a bushfire, 21 counts of recklessly causing serious injury and 157 counts of arson causing damage to property.

Sokaluk will next face court on September 15 for a legal argument related to his committal proceeding

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/...ces-10-charges

[Sayf Udeen]

Hope he gets locked up for a while.

[saif]

If he was a muslim he would be charge with terrorism.

Because he is, presumeably, a kafir, I expect the usual short jail term.

[Tay_]

VICTORIANS will be urged to leave their homes rather than stay and fight a major bushfire under a new advanced warning system to be announced.

The six-tiered Fire Danger Rating system will be used to give those in fire-prone areas advice about the safest action to take if a bushfire hits.

In a major shift of policy in the wake of the Black Saturday disaster, the Bureau of Meteorology will declare fire danger ratings in advance, in consultation with the Country Fire Authority, Metropolitan Fire Brigade and Department of Sustainability and Environment.

The system will replace the "stay-or-go" policy criticised in the aftermath of February's deadly inferno that claimed the lives of 173 people.

Conditions like Victoria experienced on Black Saturday will be classified Code Red (Catastrophic) - the highest level of danger rating - urging people in bushfire-prone areas to leave the night before, or early in the morning, of a major blaze

Code Red day would also carry a warning that: "People may die or be injured; thousands of homes or businesses may be destroyed; and that even well-prepared, well-constructed homes may not be safe during a fire."

Mr Brumby said: "Our Government has adopted the new nationally agreed Fire Danger Rating scale to help individuals and communities to understand the fire risk in their area on any given day."

Other stages of the new warning system range from low-moderate, which advises residents to check their bushfire survival plan, to extreme, which advises people to only stay to defend their property if the house is well prepared and well constructed.

The Bureau of Meteorology will issue daily Fire Danger Index outlooks during the fire season, based on predicted weather, temperature, humidity, wind speed and the dryness of vegetation. Code Red could be triggered days in advance of a fire.

However, thousands of bushfire information kits meant to be distributed to Victorians this week to coincide with Fire Action Week have been delayed until at least October 19 and as late as the end of the month.

The information will now be posted on the CFA website.

Nationals leader Peter Ryan said it was "extremely disappointing" information meant to encourage communities to prepare for bushfire survival would only be available online for now

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VICTORIA'S bushfire authorities have been caught out by soaring temperatures and hot wind arriving earlier than expected.

The extreme conditions have delayed back-burning in several high fire danger areas.

And a new statewide phone warning system is still weeks away from being tested

With Victoria sweltering in the longest run of November heat in more than 80 years, the new Fire Danger Index is expected to hit the second highest level of Severe and Extreme - just below Code Red catastrophe level.

Monday's top of 35.5C was Melbourne's hottest day since Black Saturday on February 7, when the maximum hit 46.4C and fires swept Victoria, killing 173 people.

Tuesday's forecast 34C would be the fourth straight day with temperatures above 30C

CFA deputy chief fire officer Steven Warrington said the early heatwave was a major worry for emergency services.

"We would have liked another month. All the systems are in place and we are about to start testing," he said.

Plans to test a new statewide phone warning system are still weeks away.

A test run for up to 10,000 households in high-risk areas won't be held until the end of the month.

And Victoria's new multi-million dollar water bomber is not expected to arrive for testing until January.

But Premier John Brumby said the emergency agencies were doing the best they could in the conditions.

"There has never been a greater effort to make our state as fire-safe and as fire-ready as possible," he said.

"The bushfire season has begun and I urge all Victorians to ensure they undertake their own personal planning, such as identifying fire risk and finalising their bushfire survival plans."

The first heatwave of the season is rapidly drying out bushland.

An 800ha fire in far east Gippsland has been burning at Dock Inlet, near Cape Conran, since last week.

"That will grow to 4000ha and we are working around the clock doing backburning to set up a perimeter around that," Department of Sustainability and Environment incident controller Peter Billing said.

"It will take a couple of days to do that and we want to contain it before conditions escalate substantially over the weekend across the state."

Mr Billing said the heatwave would "rapidly change the bushfire situation".

"We are bracing ourselves for a prolonged heatwave all week with thunderstorms predicted in the middle of the week," he said.

"We may get fires started by lightning strikes on Wednesday and Thursday.

"It's a real summer pattern kicking in with heat, dry conditions and lightning."

The CFA's Steven Warrington said Victoria was in the "worst bushfire prone area in the world".

He said residents on the outer fringes of Melbourne should prepare for a dangerous summer.

Towns in the Otways, the Macedon Ranges and the Mornington Peninsula were also at risk.

It is believed police have a list of fire bugs to watch.

Police patrols in high fire danger areas have been told to be on the lookout

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/vic...-1225795890722

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Two teenagers will face court today after being charged with serious offences including arson causing death for a fatal fire allegedly lit on Black Saturday.

The two boys, 14 and 15, were arrested by Taskforce Phoenix detectives at 9am today.

Police said the pair have been charged with arson causing death, deliberately lighting a bushfire, lighting fire on total fire ban day and lighting fire in a country area during extreme weather conditions.

Further, the pair were charged with multiple counts of using telecommunications service to menace, harass and offend and 135 counts each of criminal damage by fire (arson).

Police said a 47-year-old Long Gully man was killed and 354 hectares of land, 61 houses and 125 sheds and outbuildings were destroyed in the Maiden Gully fire, near Bendigo, on February 7 last year.

The youths are expected to appear before a Children's Court later today

http://www.theage.com.au/national/te...0202-na6u.html

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THE Royal Commission into Black Saturday has officially blamed power lines for starting the nation's deadliest blaze.

And the company responsible for those power lines does not want any adverse findings against the man who last inspected the lines.

The commission yesterday released damning findings into Victoria's Kilmore East blaze, which killed 119 people in the Kinglake Ranges, claiming its intensity and potential could have been predicted. It also found an incorrect fitting caused the power lines to fall.

Counsel assisting the commission, Jack Rush, QC, said early findings indicated the state should have been better prepared.

Warnings given by Premier John Brumby, Country Fire Authority chief fire officer Russell Rees and Government departments, that Black Saturday was "shaping as the worst day ever in the history of the state" and the "landscape was predisposed to a catastrophic event", indicated there was knowledge of the potential of fires

"So it is against that knowledge and that expectation that the preparations for the 7th of February, 2009 and the response on the 7th of February, 2009, is to be judged," he said.

The commission also found that the incorrect fitting on the power line should have been obvious on proper inspection.

But Allan Myers, QC, on behalf of the Government, said it was not the commission's job to find fault. Mr Myers provided a list of names to the commission who he said had been mentioned "unnecessarily" or "unfairly".

"The primary task of the commission is not to find fault or to criticise decisions that were made or actions taken or failed to be taken in the most extraordinary circumstances that existed on the 7th of February," he said.

"While the commission must be rigorous in finding and examining systemic failures, it should exercise great caution in making adverse findings against individuals or even naming individuals in a negative context when narrating facts."

And lawyers for power company SP AusNet said any adverse findings against the man who inspected the power lines would have "very significant and growing consequences" arguing that there was "no proper evidentiary basis for it".

Commission chairman Justice Bernard Teague also revealed the Government had expressed concern about the impact of the hearings on the families of those who died in the fires in the lead-up to the first anniversary.

Mr Teague said the commission had already changed its scheduling and hearings into fire-related deaths would not be held again until next month

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/bre...-1225825718403

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FIVE hours after the black smoke appeared high overhead, the flames arrived, and with them, the dark. A spot fire struck first, then the fire front. Ron and Anne Sorraghan had dressed to confront the blaze outside their St Andrews home, but unable to breathe or see, they retreated inside. They had 150 metres of cleared ground in front of the house, and maybe 20 metres of visibility.

The land was peppered with clumps of trees that lit up like beacons in the smoke-blackened afternoon. Then they dimmed, and the dark returned. Moments later, they lit up again. It was eerie, like watching slowly pulsing neon lights.

The Sorraghans reasoned this was a fire burning with an intensity that had near exhausted its own supply of oxygen. Then the trees reignited with the fierce wind

For some, the Black Saturday fire front passed in minutes. The Sorraghans lived with it for an hour, moving from room to room as smoke consumed their home around them.

A year later, like many others, the couple plan to re-establish their lives in the fire zone. Not for one moment did they consider abandoning their property. It is their life. But something has changed. Not just for the Sorraghans but for Victoria and, indeed, all Australia.

Even in this highly urbanised society, the bush has a special place in our sense of ourselves. It may not be fully understood in the cities, but those who live in the bush know that fire is always imminent, if not this year, then maybe next

"Who needs to be given a warning when the fruit on your trees is scorched brown?" asked one survivor of the fire that devastated Strathewen. He knew something serious was on the cards.

But like others burnt out last year — who say they well knew the risks and prepared for the worst — he never envisaged what would unfold on February 7, 2009. That much is evident in the toll of 173 lives lost and more than 2000 homes destroyed.

Stuart Morgan, who lost his home in St Andrews, speaks for many of the survivors when he says nobody expected a fire of such intensity. "We knew we lived in a fire-prone area, but this particular fire was not one we had been told about."

FROM the earliest years of European settlement, fire has asserted its place in our consciousness. One-quarter of Victoria — 5 million hectares — was scorched on Black Thursday, February 6, 1851. We have filled the calendar with such events. For generations of Victorians, including those not then born to witness it, Black Friday, January 13, 1939, remains a key reference. Fires that day burned 1.4 million hectares, taking 71 lives. With a fire danger index of 100, it was for a long time the benchmark.

The index is derived from measures of temperature, humidity, wind speed, most recent rain and seasonal dryness. It reflects the likelihood of a fire starting, its intensity and the difficulty of suppressing it. A 100 fire danger index was supposed to represent the "worst possible conditions", but it has been exceeded several times in recent years.

Last century, only Ash Wednesday, in 1983, exceeded Black Friday's destructive power, with 75 lives lost in Victoria and South Australia. It was comparatively small, burning 210,000 hectares, whereas in 2003 about 1.1 million hectares burned in Victoria's high country.

Black Saturday ranged up to 170 FDI and burnt more than 450,000 hectares.

An arc in the near north-east of Melbourne bore the brunt of the fires — and of the subsequent media attention: Marysville, Buxton, Kinglake, Strathewen, St Andrews, Flowerdale. But the entire state was challenged by searing temperatures and fire: 11 people died and 247 homes were lost in the Latrobe Valley's Churchill fire; three died and more homes were lost in fires near Bendigo and Beechworth; 68 homes were destroyed at Horsham in the state's west.

EVERY major fire eventually tells us something about ourselves. Ash Wednesday reflected the march of the suburbs into the bush. Perhaps Black Saturday 2009 will signify the multiplier effect of climate change on bushfire intensity. Coming at the end of the warmest decade on record, last year's inferno suggests a quickening of nature's rhythm of destruction and recovery.

Worse is the fear that climate change might be intensifying nature's inherent capacity to destroy. In his submission to the Bushfires Royal Commission, CFA captain and author of The Aus-tralian Bushfire Safety Guide, John Schauble, pointed to CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology research indicating the frequency of extreme fire danger days would increase by up to 25 per cent by 2020, and by up to 70 per cent by 2050. Viewed in this light, Black Saturday may not be so much an aberration as a model for the future. And the suspicion that this may be the first of many such fires has changed, perhaps forever, the way Australians view the bush.

For some, it was a choking black cloud. For others it heralded its arrival with the rich scent of vaporising eucalyptus. It threw spot fires like advance scouts. It burst through treetops and rippled over the ground like running water.

And it stole the air from your lungs.

In the late afternoon Toni-anne Collins walked her horse to a neighbour to be driven to safety. The fire was still 10 minutes away when she made to return home in Ninks Road, St Andrews. "I couldn't breathe and there was no air," she says. "There was no sound. It was still. There was no smoke.

"Petrified pieces of tree, entire leaves but they were black, were falling out of the sky but they weren't alight. They were dead. It was confusing. It didn't match anything you'd ever learnt."

She lost her home and marvels at her own cavalier departure, fleeing to safety in a soft-top convertible. Today she lives in a shed on the property and is trying to finalise arrangements with a builder. Collins' fire plan had been to leave, and leave early. She is now redefining "early".

IT WAS a day that rendered fire plans redundant, but at least those with plans had the advantage of awareness. “We did not think we were going to make it at one stage,” recalls Neil Minett, who, with his wife, Lisa, saved his Strathewen house while everything else around burned.

For two hours they fended off the fire, draining their swimming pool into a sprinkler system that washed over the house while the blaze stalled and started around them. "You would think it was gone, and suddenly it would whip up,” he says.

They lost everything but the house. "Living in the bush you always think this might be the year," he says, "but I still never thought the fire would be what it was."

Yet fearsome as it proved, Black Saturday has not triggered a wholesale exodus from fire-prone areas. Many survivors are as committed as ever to remaining or returning.

There are gains for those who remain. Stricken communities have bonded more tightly. Personal networks have expanded in shared adversity. They hold the bush more dearly, not less so, even as debates continue about which exotic trees may be more fire resistant and better suited to defending homes.

Without exception they laud the generosity of their fellow citizens who came to their aid. Luanna Bozzi says the public response made her proud to be Australian (this, despite the fact that four months after she and her partner helped save their rented home near Flowerdale they received a notice to vacate as their landlord saw the local housing scarcity as a chance to increase the rent).

Some are inspired by the return of native vegetation and feel closer than ever to the place. Visitors come and see blackness, says winemaker Cathy Lance, but the stayers see the green within the black.

From a precipitous ridge above Steels Creek, Vic and Raelene Gill overlook what seems to the visitor to be a charcoal forest. Distant gullies, once invisible, are exposed by a forest stripped to its skeleton.

Blackened trunks rise to bare upper boughs. But among their lower reaches are patches of green, again home to chattering kookaburras. The Gills were cheered, too, by the survival of their local echidna.

THEY escaped the fire by minutes, their departure delayed by repeated attempts to start a restored 1970 Holden Monaro. They had watched the fire all day but had to scamper as it accelerated through the gullies below. There was no time to think. One last attempt to find the Monaro's spark saved the car — and their lives — but most of their possessions were lost.

They have rebuilt, using fire-resistant panels for the exterior of their new home. Peace and quiet, that's the attraction, says Vic Gill. And it's safe for now. There's nothing left to burn.

Stuart Morgan and his wife, Rae, sold their burnt-out property outside St Andrews and moved into the township. It was not a rejection of the bush they loved, but acceptance that they could not re-create the orchards and vegetable gardens, and the self-reliant lifestyle they had crafted over decades.

"It's not that you have lost a house that's replaceable, and memorabilia that isn't replaceable," he says. "It's that you can't replicate your old life. At 62, you can't do it again."

Still, having moved into St Andrews township, Morgan says no one in the town seems any better prepared than they were last year. "We're all waiting for the royal commission in the end, to tell us some useful information,” he says.

If, as is likely, Black Saturday is a foretaste of what major bushfires may increasingly become, then it is a new era for the "fire continent".

The commission — set up nine days after the fires and due to present its final report on July 31 this year — has the advantage of the passage of time. Initial responses to bushfire are often unhelpful in adapting to the continuing fire threat, says Australian National University historian Tom Griffiths, as people rush to put lives and homes back just as they were.

In the longer term, there are some uncomfortable truths Australia has not yet grasped. “There are deep recurrent ecological realities that we are really struggling to come to terms with," says Griffiths, "and I don't see them being recognised in the interim report of the royal commission — which does not have a map, for example, of the vegetation in the area.”

Having studied the inferno of 1939, Griffiths says he was “overwhelmed by the awful appalling familiarity” of Black Saturday. It is our "recurring nightmare". “There are forests, and mountain ash forests are the classic example, that are evolved for these huge runaway fires and they will go on generating them, and I think we have got a long way to go before we accept that."

PERHAPS too few of us have truly understood that the Australian landscape is, in the words of American environmental historian Stephen Pyne, “a fire continent . . . built to burn". Or that on this continent, Victoria exists in what Pyne calls the fire flume, the most dangerous and fire-prone region of the country. Northerly winds bring dry warm air from central Australia. Temperatures rise. Humidity evaporates. And then there is the fuel. In Griffiths' words, Victoria's mountain ash forests are highly evolved to burn.

It is a fact that some believe has not been sufficiently recognised in recent decades.

Forty years ago, says Pyne, Australia was the envy of wildfire strategists for its institutionalised and disciplined control burning, but after Ash Wednesday that strategy fell apart.

Pyne is careful to say Australia does not need to be lectured on fire management by outsiders — and that the answers will have to be found by Australians in keeping with their social and cultural values. But, he says, while initiatives for smarter nature protection and better services to citizens in the "urban bush" after Ash Wednesday were worthy, "collectively they had the effect of shutting down the kind of landscape burning that was at the heart of the Australian strategy . . .

"Australia's past suggests better ways to cope than sending in DC-10s to drop retardant," he says."No serious thinker urges that the land — all land — be burned willy-nilly every four or five years, but I don't know how Australia can live with fire without using fire."

PYNE was recently visited in the US by a representative of the royal commission. His views on how the lessons of the "Australian strategy" were bypassed after 1983 will form part of the mosaic of opinion the commission must grapple with as it seeks to formulate a new fire-management regime.

But it is not just the past that the commission must grapple with. The fact that so many people on Black Saturday confronted fires of such unprecedented ferocity tells us that simply reverting to old ways will be not enough.

This is not news for those such as Ron and Anne Sorraghan, still putting their lives back together a year down the track. For now, they are living in a converted shed, and trying to find a builder for a new home on the site. But the memories of Black Saturday will always be with them.

After an hour had passed, and daylight returned in steadily longer intervals between the darkness, and the couple found they could breathe outside, the Sorraghans went to their cars. They did not take to the road, hazardous with fallen and still crashing trees, for another two hours. They sat there, the vehicles' air-conditioning filtering the smoky atmosphere, and watched the last of their home burn.

This weekend, the anniversary, some survivors will gather quietly and remember what they have lost. They will share stories of good luck and tales of unreliable builders who have stalled their plans to return or kept them living in sheds. They will recall absent friends.

They will continue coming to terms with their experiences, a task that, like Australia's experience with fire, will be forever unfinished.

For help dealing with bushfire trauma, contact Lifelin-e's 24-hour ser-vice on 131 114. Details of support forums can be found at www.lifelin-eonline.org.au

http://www.theage.com.au/national/ch...ml?autostart=1

[Tay_]

BLACK Saturday turned into Sunday mourning yesterday when a nation remembered the 173 who died in last year's inferno.


Victoria paused for a minute's silence to acknowledge the horrific loss of life and property.

With flags at half mast, survivors linked arms and shed tears from Marysville to Bendigo, Kinglake to Churchill, Clonbinane and beyond.

As the healing process entered its second year, memorial services across the state were attended by thousands of people.

On a warm, still day under a brilliant blue sky, they honoured the dead and injured from Victoria's worst natural disaster.

In Kinglake, 173 butterflies were released on the oval that became the focus of the mountain spirit through the courageous football and netball club.

There was a widespread determination to keep moving forward after one of the toughest years in memory

Thousands were left homeless by the fires, driven by 47C heat and roaring winds.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the nation was inspired by the courage of the survivors.

"The tragedy brought out the best of the Australian character and inspired countless acts of bravery and generosity," he said at St Paul's Cathedral.

Mr Rudd also visited areas hit by the bushfires, having "private chats" with survivors.

"It's extraordinary resilience in those communities," Mr Rudd said.

"I've been back up there probably half a dozen times or so since the tragic events of 12 months ago and it just stuns me each time I go there."

"It's just the absolute guts, resilience, strength of families, the individuals, the community leaders that I meet."

Premier John Brumby said the anniversary would be the defining moment for many as they try to recover.

"We come together linked by deep common threads of suffering and even deeper threads of resilience and connection."

A tree of candles was lit at St Paul's by survivors and community leaders.

Survivors spoke at several of the bush services, with Rod Liesfield - who lost three family at Marysville - appealing to his community to retain their faith against the odds.

The Marysville service was at Gallipoli Park, the oval where dozens sheltered on the night of the fires.

Carol Matthews, a grief-stricken St Andrews mother, told more than 2000 people at the St Paul's service that the survivors were united in their troubles.

She lost her 22-year-old son Sam.

"Our son was killed by the bushfires, and our memories and our house. We lost our past, our present and our future," Ms Matthews said.

Governor David de Kretser tolled a memorial bell at Kinglake West dedicated to bushfire victims.

"Last year, Victoria saw first-hand the importance of firefighters to all our communities and the incredible work they do in keeping us safe in the most horrifying circumstances," he said.

Kinglake was again a focus of attention with about 1000 people at the local football oval last night.

It was the worst-hit area, with 42 dead in the town and nearby Kinglake West.

Firefighters, SES and police officers linked up at Kinglake to create a large "Thank-you" sign, although most Victorians thought they deserved the thanks.

The CFA at Marysville was given an ovation.

One of the largest gatherings was in Whittlesea, just down the mountain from Kinglake.

Whittlesea became a hub for homeless survivors after Black Saturday.

Yesterday two cricket matches were in full swing while a multi-faith memorial service marked the day, along with the release of 173 balloons.

Larry Challis, from the Whittlesea Recovery Committee, said the day was about reflection.

"The whole community is only a very short way down the recovery path. This is not a closure event," he said.

"We like to say we are in the business of rebuilding people and rebuilding communities."

In Gippsland, about 500 people attended a service in Churchill to honour 11 locals who died.

Recovery manager Steve Tong said bereaved families had been consulted about the focus of the service.

"They wanted it to be very much about remembering those 11 community members that were lost and give the rest of the community the opportunity to reflect on the 12 months they have had."

In Strathewen, where 27 died, locals who attended a memorial service were invited to place a written message inside an envelope and have it preserved in a vault as a legacy of the first anniversary.

Many communities stressed that yesterday was a chance to have fun and lift spirits.

Stacey Kelly, from the Clonbinane Bushfire Recovery Group, said lots of kids' activities had been organised because local children had missed while their parents concentrated on rebuilding their homes.

Clonbinane was one of the first areas to be hit after the Kilmore East fire jumped the Hume Freeway.

"Our main focus was not to dwell on what we have lost. It is to focus on what we still have," Ms Kelly said.

Strath Creek Recovery Committee chairman Liam Sheahan told a breakfast function it was important to celebrate the survival and resilience of the community.

"The key purposes of this event are to remember the people we have lost, reflect on the changes to our lives and to thank those that helped us get through the fires and survive this first year," he said.

In Diamond Creek, restaurant owner Janine Brandt held a gathering for about 500 people, many of whom volunteered their help in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Ms Brandt closed her business for a week last year and she and her staff helped run the kitchen at a relief centre.

"We still need to stand together. It is far from finished," she said.

"But it's not about being sad. It is just about thinking and remembering."

[Tay_]

A MAN who stole $200,000 worth of charity items intended for Black Saturday victims in a "heartless" burglary has been jailed.

Moorabbin Magistrates' Court heard Dominic Muzzi, 48, stockpiled the items, ranging from toiletries to expensive electronic equipment, at his home.

Muzzi stole the items from a Clayton warehouse that shared the same premises as his employer Linfox.

Magistrate Brian Barrow jailed Muzzi for three years with a minimum of 18 months.

Muzzi immediately appealed and was bailed pending the outcome.

The court heard Muzzi was ashamed by his behaviour, was under financial strain and suffered from a major depressive illness.

It heard he had no intention of selling the items and wanted to give them to family members as gifts.

But Mr Barrow said the public who so generously donated the items were entitled to expect they'd end up in the hands of bushfire victims

``What you did Mr Muzzi was heartless, it was inexcusable,'' he said.

Muzzi pleaded guilty to three counts of burglary and three of theft

[Tay_]

THE man accused of lighting Black Saturday's Churchill fire claims he was on the other side of town minutes before the blaze started.

Brendan James Sokaluk, 40, denies sparking the catastrophic fire that killed 11 people and wiped out hundreds of homes.

His lawyer told Melbourne Magistrates' Court Mr Sokaluk was at a supermarket cash register shortly before the fire started.

David Sexton said the IGA supermarket was 12 minutes away from the alleged ignition site of the fire, leaving very little time for him to have set it before witnesses started reporting seeing smoke.

He said there may have been multiple sources for the fire and exactly how it began was a major issue in the case.

Mr Sexton said there were other suspects with "soft" alibis, including a serial arsonist riding a bicycle in the area and youths police had noted as acting "cagey" on the day of the fire.

Prosecutor Ray Elston SC said the trip from the supermarket to where the fire is believed to have started was "considerably shorter" than 12 minutes and other suspects had alibis or evidence to show where they were.

A former CFA officer told the court Mr Sokaluk resigned as a volunteer in 1988.

He said Mr Sokaluk, whom the court was told had a severe intellectual disability, did not appear slow or unable to understand his CFA training.

A high school friend of Mr Sokaluk, Trevor Bird, said he had "psychic intuition" after the events of Black Saturday that his old mate had been responsible.

He admitted they had a falling out after school but denied Mr Sokaluk was "slow".

Mr Sokaluk is charged with 191 offences including arson causing death.

The preliminary hearing before Magistrate Simon Garnett is continuing

[Allah (swt) Knows Best]

I've recently met someone who went to school with Brendan Sokaluk.
Let's just say positive things haven't been said...

[Tay_]

ALMOST $120 million of Black Saturday donations is yet to flow to bushfire victims.

It will be 500 days this month since the fire disaster, but close to a third of the money raised from the public last year hasn't been spent.

But a gap in the fund may soon be closed, with assistance likely for some who lost second homes in the fire, but until now have received no assistance.

Interest has pushed the total value of the Victorian Bushfire Appeal Fund to $391 million, but the unclaimed portion has barely changed since September.

Fund chairman Pat McNamara said a large number of community projects would come on line and money would be set aside for long-term issues such as child burns victims, who would require long-term care.

But he said most of the unclaimed cash would be spent on community-based projects, which were still being processed

Doug Walter, of Marysville, said there was a community expectation that the money would go to the most needy.

"I think there is an expectation from the donating Australian community that the money would be spent fairly quickly," he said.

A Herald Sun investigation shows thousands of projects have been backed across fire zones. Virtually all the money has been allocated, but only $256 million has been claimed

[Tay_]

THE man accused of lighting the Churchill fire that killed 10 people on Black Saturday has been ordered to stand trial.

Brendan Sokaluk, 40, is charged with 190 offences, including 10 counts of arson causing death.

This afternoon magistrate Simon Garnett said there was overwhelming evidence the fire was deliberately lit using a match or lighter, and Mr Sokaluk was in the area at the time.

Mr Sokaluk's car was found burned out near where the blaze started on February 7 last year.

The preliminary hearing at Melbourne Magistrates' Court, which ran over a month, heard Mr Sokaluk claimed to be on the other side of town when the fire broke out.

His lawyer David Sexton said Mr Sokaluk was shopping at a supermarket at 1.16pm, and there was only a small window in which it could have been lit.

But Mr Garnett said police had timed the trip from the store to the fire ignition point at between three and eight minutes, which was ample time to start the fire at the Hancock pine plantations just before 1.30pm.

Witnesses described seeing Mr Sokaluk standing on his roof watching the fire later that day.

A family friend told the court Mr Sokaluk, who has been assessed as having an intellectual disability, was a "halfwit" that she could barely hold a conversation with.

But other witnesses told the hearing they believed the former CFA volunteer was "putting it on" and exaggerating his intellectual disability.

When asked how he pleaded to the charges Mr Sokaluk said, "Me?", before later pleading not guilty.

Mr Garnett said there was enough evidence for a jury to decide the case and ordered Mr Sokaluk to face the Supreme Court later this month.

He remanded Mr Sokaluk in custody

[Tay_]

The Bushfires Royal Commission has for the first time estimated the cost of the Black Saturday disaster. The commission's final report estimates the cost at $4.4 billion and says this is a "conservative" figure.

One of the biggest contributors to the $4.4 billion estimate is the figure put on the 173 lives lost - which has been calculated at $645 million. The commission said it used "the method of valuing life accepted by Commonwealth and Victorian government agencies for a variety of purposes" to calculate the number.

The total estimated cost does not include an assessment of the costs of the vast number of injuries sustained in the fires. This would have required detailed data on hospitalisation costs, estimates of long-term treatment costs and of lost work time.

A detailed calculation contained in the report shows that the biggest expense from the fires has been insurance claims paid out, which the Insurance Council of Australia said totalled about $1.2 billion. Of these 84 per cent are property or contents claims, the remaining 16 per cent are motor vehicle claims.

But there are significant signs that the $1.2 billion figure does not fully capture the total costs of property and assets damaged on Black Saturday.

The report said that as much as 13 per cent of residential properties destroyed by bushfires on the day could have been without any insurance cover. "In addition, there is ample evidence of under-insurance, when that is defined as a situation in which the sum insured is below the rebuilding cost," the report said.

"The commission considers that, on balance, the level of insurance claims is likely to underestimate the true extent of property losses, but it is unable to calculate the extent of this underestimation," the report said.

Other substantial costs not included in the staggering $4.4 billion estimate are the vast agricultural losses that occurred, as well as the massive curbs the fires put on agricultural production in following seasons.

Livestock losses - mainly sheep, cattle, horses and goats - are estimated at more than 11,800 head. The report did not include lost grazing pasture or feed production. Early estimates from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries after the fires put grazing pasture losses at 62,000 hectares and hay/silage (feed) losses at a massive 32,000 tonnes.

Key points

* About 13 per cent of destroyed homes may have been without insurance.

* Insurance claims have totalled about $1.2 billion.

* 98,932 hectares of Victorian parks were damaged by fire, with 90 per cent of this being National Park.

* The RSPCA estimates that more than 1 million animals died in the fires

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/bl...ml?autostart=1

[Tay_]

A BID by electricity supplier SP Ausnet and Victoria Police to stop a class action by hundreds of Black Saturday bushfire victims from going to trial has failed.

SP Ausnet and the state - defendants in a class action by hundreds of Black Saturday victims - tried to have the proceedings dismissed.

SP Ausnet cited an abuse of process by the solicitors who issued the initial claim.

But Victorian Supreme Court Justice Jack Forrest today ruled the proceeding should stand, as the abuse was "not fatal" to the case going ahead.

He also added that potentially many thousands of claimants would be affected by an order dismissing the claim.

Solicitors Oldham Naidoo had issued proceedings for damages against power company SP Ausnet over Victoria's February 2009, bushfires at Kilmore East and Beechworth.

The company is being sued for allegedly failing to maintain and monitor powerlines that sparked the blazes

The firm named Leo Keane the representative plaintiff in the action, despite not gaining his permission.

Justice Forrest found the solicitors' conduct was a "patent and egregious abuse of process".

"The firm's handling of the claim should be referred to the Legal Services Commissioner," he said in his ruling.

"However, the consequences of that abuse of process should not result in the dismissal of the proceeding."

In March this year, law firm Maurice Blackburn became aware of Oldham Naidoo's unauthorised actions and brought its conduct to the court's attention. It is now leading the class action and played no part in the abuse of process.

Carol Matthews has replaced Mr Keane as the lead plaintiff.

Justice Forrest said the court's aim was to ensure that the abuse of process did not cause injustice to the parties.

"Potentially, many thousands of claimants would be affected by an order dismissing the claim," he said.

"The prejudice is real both in terms of delay and in the financial sense."

The Black Saturday bushfires killed 173 people when they devastated Victoria on February 7, 2009.

Victoria Police also applied to have the proceedings dismissed without going to trial.

But Justice Forrest found there was merit in the claim Victoria Police officers breached their duties by failing to give adequate warning to people threatened by fire and ruled the case should go to trial

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/bre...-1226053488336

[Tay_]

A former Victorian Country Fire Authority volunteer has been found guilty of killing 10 people by deliberately lighting a bushfire on Black Saturday.

Brendan Sokaluk, 42, had been on trial in the Victorian Supreme Court for the past month, accused of deliberately lighting the Churchill fire on February 7, 2009.

Today a jury found him guilty of arson causing death.

Ten people were killed, more than 150 homes were razed, and 36,000 hectares of land were destroyed in the blaze.

The verdict means Sokaluk is responsible for the deaths, making him one of Victoria's worst killers.

He has been remanded in custody to be sentenced at a later date.

Outside court, defence barrister Jane Dixon QC says she believes there will likely be an appeal.

"(He is) shattered, of course. I think he is a bit lost at the moment," she said.

Sokaluk is autistic and has a mild intellectual disability. He told police he may have accidentally started the fire when he threw cigarette ash out of his car window

His police interview was central to the case.

Five days after the Black Saturday inferno swept through Churchill, Sokaluk was taken back to Jelleff's Outlet, where the fire started.

Police filmed the re-enactment as he told them he may have started the blaze.

"Part of my cigarette thing fell on the floor, so I got a bit of paper out to grab it and stuff... I thought it was dead and I've chucked it out the window, but I didn't know it had lit up," Sokaluk told them

But he strenuously denied deliberately starting the fire.

"I didn't mean any of this to happen," he told police.

"I thought it was out when I threw the paper out the window.

"I had no intention of this all to happen. Now I have to put up [with it] for the rest of my life and it makes me sad."

Later, when asked what his mum's name was, he simply replied "mum".

When told he would be kept in custody that night, he asked if the beds were soft.

The cigarette ash explanation was pivotal in what was a largely circumstantial case.

On Black Saturday, the temperature in the Latrobe Valley spiked at 46 degrees Celsius, and wind gusts reached 70 kilometres per hour, creating an inferno

The month-long Supreme Court trial heard that Sokaluk was seen in the area where the fire started - a fact he never denied.

He was one of the first to call triple-0, and his broken-down car was found burnt out the next day.

Prosecutor Ray Elston said Sokaluk gave various reasons for being in the area.

He said he created a web of deceit to try get away with arson, and the cigarette ash explanation given to police was a "furphy", as the fire was ignited at two different locations.

But Sokaluk's defence asked the jury to consider his alleged confession through the prism of his recently diagnosed autism and his mild intellectual ability.

Ms Dixon told the court autistic people are often pretty poor liars and have trouble keeping a story straight when trying to lie.

In her eyes, he was a "simple man who believed himself to be in very, very big trouble," whether he started the fire accidentally or not.

"This is no contrived web of lies and deceit ... frankly, Brendan Sokaluk would not be capable of calculating his way out a paper bag unless he had a map," Ms Dixon contended.

"What Brendan does in that interview is tell the truth as he perceives it."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-2...erdict/3894526