Quote:
Originally Posted by strongmanmike
Yes, unfortunately that seems to be a common misconception Alex 
See page 53-59 of the 466 page Final Report of the NSW Bushfire Inquiry into the 2019/20 bushfire season, released end of July last year.
Summed up here...
2.1.3 How did the fires start?
" Lightning was the suspected, immediate cause of ignition for the vast majority of the largest
and most damaging fires across NSW in the 2019-20 season. The dryness of the
landscape due to prolonged and widespread drought meant that lightning ‘caught’ well to
start fires and provided suitable conditions for them to spread once they were alight."
Cheers
Mike |
I don't believe that is a misconception: those fires started well away from people and after recorded lightening strikes. However, the report does acknowledge human agency in starting the fires, so let's quote the rest of 2.1.3 for completeness:
"NSW RFS has also reported that power lines were a suspected cause of a few of the larger,
damaging fires listed in Table 2-1.42
Some fires were also started by people – either deliberately or by accident. For example,
early in the season in northern NSW, many early fires were suspected to be due to private
burns that started on private land.
Some fires were suspected to have started by machinery. For example, the Orroral Valley
fire in January 2020 is thought to have started by the heat from lights on an Army MRH-90
helicopter. While this fire started in the ACT, it spread into NSW.
There were also instances of suspected arson during the 2019-20 season, but these were a
very small proportion of the area burnt. Strike Force Tronto reported to the Inquiry that there
were 63 offences under the Crimes Act 1900 under the category of ‘intentionally cause fire
and be reckless to its spread’ from 1 July 2019 to 3 Feb 2020. Fifty-nine of these fires were
deliberately lit and, of those, 11 were lit with intention to cause a bush fire."