20 houses destroyed in "controlled" burn in Western Australia.

Will the authorities be charged with arson?

have you seen how badly managed the forests are in Australia? They've basically been asking for this sort of trouble for decades now.

When there were all of the fires around Victoria last year, the USFS sent a team over to AUS to help them out - my father (one of the top logistics guys) was one of those who was sent down there.

According to my pops:

• they have laws in AUS that prevent people from cutting down trees & creating firebreaks (ie: to save their own houses)

• some species of eucalyptus are protected. These generally have very high eucalyptus oil content & go up like oil soaked rags. This is why a controlled burn (a regular occurrence in the US) can have unintended consequences.

• the AUS "forest service" literally had no idea how to manage a forest fire, and they didnt have any of the support equipment needed (C-130 water-bombers, helicopters w/ fire-retardant buckets, polaskis, training, etc).

The AUS government is directly to blame for instituting policies that prohibit proper forestry management. Until that changes & they get some trained fire-crews, the forest fires will continue.

Global warming no doubt. You Aussies better start paying higher taxes to combat this type of disaster.