Heat on fire lighter

1 November 2008

published by www.illawarramercury.com.au

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Australia — At 8am most days, a school-aged youth scopes bushland west of Dapto, looking for his opportunity to strike.

Believed to be responsible for lighting more than 10 fires in the area since June, he has so far managed to evade authorities, honing his technique along the way.

What he doesn’t know is that someone is on his trail.

Horsley-based criminal behavioural analyst Dean Webb has been monitoring the activities of the fire starter on a private basis for the past five months, largely because the culprit keeps lighting fires in his suburban back yard.

A former police officer and now full-time Illawarra firefighter, Mr Webb, 39, runs an investigation business and is one of a handful of people in the world trained in geographical profiling.

Developed by a Canadian police officer in the 1990s and today used by the FBI, the technique is based on the premise a serial criminal will operate out of habit.

“It’s been known for a long time that humans, given any certain situation, will respond in a predictable way,” Mr Webb said. “Given a situation, they’ll always take the easiest option and that’s the basis of geographical profiling.”

He said most serial criminals operated within a 1.5km radius of their home or workplace, using the same modus operandi.

“They’ll use the same methodology, something they’ve used before and it’s worked and they’ll continue to use it. It’s the least-effort principle,” Mr Webb said.

“If they’re going to light a bushfire, they will either light it with matches or use an incendiary device such as a zip lighter, but they’ll always use the same way.”

Geographical profiling came to the Illawarra’s attention in 2003 when a Canadian profiler was brought in to help investigate the murder of 23-year-old Rachelle Childs, whose body was found at Gerroa.

In 2004, FBI agents assisted in the hunt for a sex offender, accused of 13 rape and indecent assault incidents in Sydney’s inner west.

It has been embraced by Hollywood and has featured in movies such as The Silence of the Lambs and Zodiac. The Kay Scarpetta book series by Patricia Cornwall centres on criminal profiler Benson Wesley. Television series Profiler and Criminal Minds are other examples.

Geographic profiling helped Mr Webb narrow the identity of the Horsley arsonist, whose signature involves lighting more than one fire in the same spot.

All his fires have been started within a 1km radius. He is also suspected to be school-aged.

“His periods of activity coincide with school hours. Previously most of his fire setting was at 3.30pm … Suddenly his pattern was interrupted and he began starting fires at 8am, which means he was most likely on his way to school.”

Mr Webb said many fires were lit by young firebugs and early intervention programs were available for children in recognition that early fire-setting behaviour was not uncommon, primarily in males.

So what separates an inquisitive firebug from a fully fledged arsonist with malicious intent?

“That’s where there’s a lot of conjecture,” Mr Webb said. “No-one agrees.”

Freud linked it to sexual deviance, the flame representing the phallus.

Modern psychologists cite a fixation with emergency services and the hero mentality of being the one to dial triple-0.

Research manager for crime monitoring at the Australian Institute of Criminology, Warwick Jones, said the profile of an average arsonist was difficult to formulate because so few had been caught.

“We’ve tried to develop a profile of arsonists, but the information available is strictly limited, evidence is so mixed,” he said.

A study of NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research data in the five years from 2001 to 2006 provides some indication. Of the 133 bushfire arsonists tried in court, 31 per cent were aged under 18. The average age was 26, while males comprised 90 per cent of all offenders.

Updated results show 18 adults and 55 juveniles were charged with 92 offences in 2007-08.

Interestingly, volunteer firefighters account for an estimated one in five blazes.

A high-profile case involved Albury volunteer Peter Cameron Burgess, whose spree of 16 fires across NSW in 2001-02 earned him a two-year jail term.

He told police he was excited by fire and got emotional satisfaction from the praise heaped on volunteer firefighters.

Mr Jones said strong patterns of fire lighting had led to investigations concentrating more in this area than on the individual characteristics of arsonists.

He added that patterns varied from place to place. In the Illawarra, for example, five years of data has shown that most bushfires are lit on a Saturday.

“We also know that this time of year is the peak time for fire lighting in the Illawarra. We don’t why,” he said.

Whatever the underlying cause, the often devastating work of firebugs, together with an increase in bushfire attacks, has this week prompted NSW Police to act.

The State Crime Command Property Crime Squad Arson Team announced its brief had been extended to include acts of bushfire arson, for which the maximum penalty is 14 years’ jail.

Nevertheless, NSW Rural Fire Service Superintendent Richard Cotterill said the incidence of bushfire arson in the Illawarra was not prevalent.

“We do have, on occasion, some fires deliberately lit,” he said.

But most outbreaks were linked to natural causes such as lightning, or instances such as powerlines blowing together, trail bike riders blazing a path through dry grass and abandoned cars set alight.

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In Sylmar, an entire community goes up in flames

16 November 2008

published by www.latimes.com

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USA — Of Oakridge’s 600 mobile homes, 501 were destroyed and at least 40 were badly damaged. Even firefighters were forced to leave as the flames grew so intense, they burned fire hoses into the cement.

“Prepare yourselves for the worst,” Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Steve Ruda told the crowd of frightened, exhausted people who had been evacuated early Saturday from Sylmar’s Oakridge Mobile Home Park. “I don’t have good news.”

As some of the 200 evacuees wept nearby, Ruda held up a charred, tattered flag. “Let this American flag be a sign of hope,” he said, choking up.

But by day’s end, that hope was hard to cling to, as 501 of the park’s 600 mobile homes had been destroyed and at least 40 more had suffered significant damage.

The park was a scene of devastation, where 50-foot flames had leveled street after street of homes and melted hastily dropped fire hoses into the pavement after even the firefighters were forced to flee. With rare exceptions, only ash and twisted metal remained.

The blaze tore through the mobile home park so fast that firefighters barely had time to rouse people from bed and urge them to safety. Several residents were put into fire engines and rushed out of the neighborhood, in some cases dropped off under freeway overpasses, the nearest safe location, before crews raced back to the battle.
  Fire officials said that by early Saturday, the winds had whipped to 50 mph and firefighters reported towering flames and zero visibility. Water mains had run dry or lacked adequate pressure. The conditions became so dangerous that crews, at least for a while, were ordered to evacuate.

“We realized it was a losing battle,” veteran firefighter Steve Marotta said.

Ruth Kamke, 84, had noticed the glow in the sky late Friday night and immediately started gathering her belongings — clothes, cash and her husband’s ashes — and packing them into her 1973 mint-condition yellow-and-black Camaro. As she worked, the power flickered off and on. She used her cane to get around.

By 2 a.m., Kamke was ready to leave, but the electricity failed again and she couldn’t open her garage door. Outside, a rain of glowing embers ignited the bushes around her mobile home.

She grabbed a hose and was spraying down her yard when three firefighters appeared and took her by both arms, leading her across the street to a lawn in front of the community clubhouse.

“As I sat there, I watched each house on my block catch fire in turn,” Kamke said.

Desperate to save her car and belongings, she pleaded with firefighters, who eventually broke down the garage door and pulled the vehicle out. One police officer drove the Camaro out of the neighborhood to safety; another put Kamke in his patrol car and took her to the evacuation center. She peered out the rear window and watched the flames consume her home.

“Everything was fire,” Kamke said. “I kept telling them as they were breaking down the garage door, ‘You fight the fire. I’ll take care of myself.’ They said, ‘No, we’re gonna save your car, too.’ “

Her eyes filled with tears as she recounted the firefighters’ heroism. “What part of my life is left, they saved for me,” she said.

Throughout the long afternoon and evening, the neighborhood remained off-limits to residents, reporters and others not on official business. Spot fires flared, although there was little left to burn.

Residents hiked down a dusty trail to peer into the park over a brick-and-concrete wall. As they stood on tiptoe on blackened tree stumps, they searched for familiar landmarks that might help them spot their homes amid the rubble.

But what they saw looked nothing like the neighborhood several had proudly described as a “country-club-like resort” with a swimming pool, tennis court and billiards tables.

Around the community, a few scattered homes remained. There was one miracle: a yellow house with white trim on Sombrero Street. Firefighters didn’t know why it had survived when everything around it was gone.

“This is one of those that will go down in my memory for a long time,” Los Angeles Fire Capt. Andrew Ruiz said.

But retired school bus drivers Linda Pogacnik, 63, and Nodonda Baldwin, 56, were not so lucky. Nothing was left of the 1,500-square-foot modular home they had pooled their savings to buy.

“My street — ashes,” Pogacnik said, crying uncontrollably. “It was the Beverly Hills of mobile home parks. . . . We had a view, trees, a yard and neighbors. We felt so safe there. It was a perfect place for an old retired woman.”

The trees were now gone and the grass charred. At most homes nearby, all that remained were brick steps leading to now-missing front doors and an occasional charred stove or melted car frame.

At 515 Sombrero, the only things still standing were a mailbox and a sign flapping in the wind.
 

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Wildfires a Major Threat

25 November 2008

published by www.newera.com.na

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Namibia — Fire remains a major threat with regard to the conservation of forest resources. Seasonally occurring wildfires are frequently damaging the vegetation of almost all regions and are causing loss of many valuable resources.

The reduction of wild fires therefore is considered as an issue of national importance. The Directorate of Forestry (DoF) in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry has already some activities in place to reduce the occurrence of wildfires.

Integrated Fire Management is a project under the Directorate of Forestry being financed by the National Planning Commission (NPC). The main objective of the project is to address and prepare for forest fires in Namibia that cause damage to the environment.

The project addresses different aspects such as fire prevention, fire management planning and fire suppression aspects as well as enhances the development of skilled forestry manpower in effective prevention and management of wild fires.

Fire cutline establishment and maintenance increase the security of grazing both in the communal and commercial areas through the minimisation of unwanted fires.

Funds made available by NPC are used to construct new fire cutlines and maintain existing cutlines where local communities are contracted to perform such tasks. The Ministry is currently in the process to acquire heavy equipment that will be deployed in some fire hazard areas to construct and maintain fire cutlines.

Together with the provision of fire-fighting equipment to local communities the dangers of fire to both human lives and the natural environment are reduced. The ministry is providing assistance with fire-fighting to the public in both commercial and communal land. All natural resources users in Namibia will benefit from the project and the security of people, game and livestock from fire risk will be enhanced.

The situation of fire occurrence is being monitored by the National Remote Sensing Centre under the Ministry’s Forestry Research Division. The centre is able to spot any fire at any time via satellite. The satellite images are used to produce fire maps that will indicate the fire occurrence across Namibia. Such maps can be produced for individuals or organizations at a minimal fee.

The Ministry sensitizes Namibian people on forest fire problems through intensive extension, carrying out fire awareness campaigns and builds the capacity of Government and communities to enable them to manage their natural resources sustainably.

The Ministry can also assist individuals, communities and organizations with the development of fire management plans that will give guidance on how to manage fires on a piece of land.

Namibia like other countries, practises prescribed burning which is pre-planned ignition of fire for specific purposes such as fuel reduction, habitat modification, improvement of natural resources (thatch grass), and removal of encroaching bushes.

However, such practice has to be done with the authorisation of the Directorate of Forestry under the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry and other key stakeholders as stipulated in the Forest Act No. 12 of 2001 (Forest Amendment Act No.13 of 2005).

Prescribed burning is recommended to be carried out only during specific cases such as in the early morning or late afternoon when humidity is high and temperature is low, and when the wind is low in speed.

Currently, the Directorate of Forestry in collaboration with a German funded programme under the Ministry, and Community Forestry in Namibia (CFN) carry out large-scale tests and experiments on innovative strategies and methods of prescribed burning and strip burning to find out more about their practical applicability. It will be scrutinized whether these techniques can be adapted to the specific environmental conditions in Namibia.

Training is also provided to community members on both fire-fighting and fire management. The training involves fire-fighting, fire prevention and using fire as a management tool.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry is requesting the public to contact the nearest forestry office for assistance in fire management and prevention as these services are for free. Equally, the Ministry is also asking for cooperation from the public to assist with fire-fighting when required and to use fires in a responsible manner. The Ministry is also urging the public to report any incident of veld fire and also report people who are causing irresponsible fires that are causing extensive damage to the environment and properties.

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Farm machinery starts grass fire

6 November 2008

published by www.news.com.au

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Australia — Farm machinery started a grass fire in a paddock in the Mid North of the state this afternoon.

About three and a half hectares were destroyed at Yacka when sparks form the header started the fire around 1.30pm.

It took one CFS unit and the farmer to bring the blaze under control within a few minutes.

CFS Regional Operations Planning Officer Bluey Devine said farmers should “ensure they have adequate fire cover when harvesting and necessary precautions in place.”

“The operators involved in today’s incident at Yacka had a farm fire fighting unit on hand which ensured a quick response when the fire sparked.”

Mr Devine said, “a farm fire fighting unit with a pump, motor hoses and water tank ready to use when harvesting or burning off is essential.”

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