A salute to the fire fighters around Sydney and elsewhere as they risk their lives to protect lives and property. The odds are so heavily weighted against them, yet they do this every time bush fires break out.
There are likely to be many rash statements made on occasions such as these. Statements like, “Bring back capital punishment for arson!” “People shouldn’t be allowed to build in such places!” Seriously, those might be after-the-event fixes for the problem, but do we really want to go there?
I suppose my home and contents insurance premiums will go up as a result of these fires, much as they did following the floods, but does that give me the right to tell others where they may – or may not – build their homes? Apart from inner-city suburbia, it would be quite difficult to find anywhere to live that doesn’t have a degree of bush-fire risk about it, for that’s the sort of country of which Eastern Australia is made.
As for the sweet little darlings who ran amok with a box of matches, I wonder what the justice system can reasonably do to punish them? It’s hardly likely an 11 year-old will go to jail and, when it comes to the 15 year-old… Who knows?
One thing is certain. Nothing will change in the foreseeable future.