A bird ignited by powerlines caused Tarago fire, investigators find

["calyptorhynchus ." <>]

Sorry, I'm just getting old and cynical. I imagine that firefighters and police being utterly sick of people who were nearly burning to death saying 'Why don't they get these arsonists and lock 'em up for life/hang them/death's too good for them/why don't the police DO something' (whereas arson would be a very easy crime to get away with)... so they just prefer to say the fire had some natural cause.

Even if you go to where the fire started and find a charred bird under powerlines how do know it wasn't just overcome by the smoke , fell down and then got charred?

John L

On 21 January 2017 at 12:08, John Harris <> wrote:

I understand that the first step in determining the cause of a grass fire like this one is to determine the starting point of the fire. Wind direction etc can sometimes mean that this can be quite accurate. If an expert determined the fire started at a point beneath some power lines, a charred bird in that spot would make it a  very likely cause.

From: Philip Veerman <>
Date: Friday, 20 January 2017 at 11:07 PM
To: 'David Rees' <>, 'John Leonard' <m("gmail.com","calyptorhynchus");" target="_blank">>
Cc: chatline <m("canberrabirds.org.au","canberrabirds");" target="_blank">org.au>
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] A bird ignited by powerlines caused Tarago fire, investigators find

It happens with possums & fruit bats. Less likely with birds as they tend to just be in contact with one wire. About happening all the time, I think it rather amazing that the people managed to find this and determine it to be the cause in this case. Of all the fires that happen from unknown causes, what would have been the chances of finding a dead bird and being able to match it to the cause? Also it requires the right ground conditions for a fire to take on.

 

Philip

 

From: David Rees
Sent: Friday, 20 January, 2017 4:34 PM
To: John Leonard
Cc: m("canberrabirds.org.au","canberrabirds");" target="_blank">org.au
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] A bird ignited by powerlines caused Tarago fire, investigators find

 

John

 

I've have personally seen a Magpie do just this in suburban Melbourne.  Managed to arc the power wires, big bang and crash and it fell to ground in flames, in that case it hit the tarmac. I'd say it is possible.. 

 

David

 

On Fri, Jan 20, 2017 at 4:26 PM, John Leonard <> wrote:

Sounds very unlikely to me. If it was the cause why doesn't it happen all the time?

John Leonard

 

On 20 Jan 2017, at 4:16 PM, kym bradley <> wrote:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/a-bird-ignited-by-powerlines-caused-tarago-fire-investigators-find-20170120-gtvfic.html

Bird ignited by powerlines caused Tarago fire www.canberratimes.com.au A bird that caught fire after flying too close to high-voltage powerlines is what authorities believe started the Currandooley fire in Tarago.

 

 

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John Leonard
Canberra
Australia
www.jleonard.net

I want to be with the 9,999 other things.