The combination of longer, hotter summers brought on by climate change is making Australia’s arson problem a potentially deadly issue that will only get worse.
Less than one per cent of Australia’s arsonists are caught and convicted, Janet Stanley, an associate professor at Melbourne University’s Sustainable Society Institute, told The New Daily.
One in every 1000 people has a predisposition to starting fires, meaning some 25,000 Australians at any one time could set something alight, she said.
“We have to do something if we’re going to actually be able to all live a vaguely normal life.”
Last financial year, 1297 incidents of bushfire arson were recorded by NSW police, resulting in 36 guilty charges and just three jail sentences.
The data from the NSW Bureau of Crime and Statistics (BCS) also shows over half of finalised court appearances were convicted of intentionally causing fire and being reckless as to its spread.
Since the start of this Australian bushfire season, 183 people in NSW have faced legal action for fire-related offences.
Ms Stanley suspects the overall number of arsonists to be “far, far higher”, not just in NSW but across the country.
She estimated half of all bushfires were deliberately lit, with climate change increasing their size, severity and scale of destruction.
“Before climate change kicked in as a major problem with fires, if a fire was lit, it was usually just fairly easily put out,” she said.
“We’re now living with fires (that) can’t be put out.”
In September, which marked the start of this bushfire season, arsonists started 159 bushfires in NSW (where the fire risk was the highest), according to the latest data from NSW BCS.
Covert operations
Detecting bushfire arsonists requires the state’s police force to undertake covert operations, a NSW Police spokesperson said.
Profiles are also compiled on people who are deemed to pose a bushfire arson risk.
As for Victoria, not a single fire in the declared disaster zone of East Gippsland was officially started by arson, incident controller Brett Mitchell said.
Over the 12 months ending in September 2019, there were 43 bushfire-related offences, of which 21 resulted in an arrest/charge.
Victoria Police monitor known arsonists or “people of interest” by conducting “intelligence-led patrols of arson fire hotspots” throughout the year, more so in the lead up to and on severe, extreme and code red days, a spokesperson said.
South Australia Police is monitoring 81 “people of interest”, a spokesperson said. Others they consider would-be arsonists are also on a watch list.
ACT police have charged one man for lighting a fire during a total fire ban this summer.
They patrol areas on days of severe, extreme and catastrophic fire danger to “detect any suspicious activity or anti-social behaviour”, a spokesperson said.
So far this financial year, Tasmania police have charged two men for unlawfully setting fire to vegetation, resulting in bushfires.
Six men were charged with the same offence in the 2018-19 financial year, a spokesperson said.
To reduce the risk of a deliberately lit fire, Tasmania police monitor fire offenders and conduct high visibility patrols of camping sites, popular recreation areas and bush-urban interfaces.
Police in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory do not have an arson watch list.
So, who are arsonists?
Ms Stanley said arsonists usually come from poor backgrounds and experience some form of child abuse or neglect.
She said they might also suffer from a mild intellectual disability, have poor problem-solving skills, are abusing drugs, or have a mental illness/personality disorder.
“They are very much people who are struggling with their own life. And they use fire as a means of coping … because they’re angry or because it’s a cry for help,” she explained.
It might be that they are hoping flames will cover up a crime or maybe they’re just bored and want to create some excitement, Ms Stanley added.
There’s also those who want to be heroes.
“If you’re a lonely person, unemployed, nothing to do, feeling that no one likes you much, you’re not part of society. To light a fire and then be the first person to report it and put it out is pretty powerful,” Ms Stanley said.
The one thing these different types of people have in common when they choose to start a fire is they often don’t think about the consequences.
“They are at times devastated by what’s actually happened from their thoughtless behaviour.”
