There’s smoke in the autumn air these days. Smoke from ‘burn-offs’ as government workers take advantage of the cooler weather in Victoria to reduce the undergrowth. This last week the air was thick with smoke, lying lazily in smoke clouds on the horizon, obscuring the blue sky, drifting into the house. It has a distinctive scent of gum leaves burning. It is a reminder of summers past and summers yet to come.
It is a reminder of one dismal day -21st January 1997. It is a reminder of three lives lost. On that day a firebug lit a series of fires in the Dandenong Ranges. A gigantic plume of brown smoke rose over the hills, with a red core of fire. I have a memory of this strange brown cloud dwarfing the hovering helicopters that were vainly water-bombing the blazing bush.
The arsonist had chosen his day well: a 39 degree day – it had been 42 degrees the day before – with a gale force, northerly wind blowing and low humidity. He chose the area carefully – thickly forested, hilly land dotted with homes, and tiny narrow roads down which fire trucks could not pass.
On that day Graham and Jennifer Lindroth, and their neighbour Genevieve Erin, were burnt to death at Ferny Creek in one of the last fires that the arsonist lit on that day.
I knew Graham well: I worked with him in the shadow of the Dandenong hills. On that day I wished him well as he left work to either evacuate or defend his home should the fires get close. I cried out ‘good luck’ to him as he left on that day, never to return. He would have been angry that the bush burnt, that Sherbrooke Forest was threatened – he was a horticulturist like me and he liked nature. He was 26 and had his life ahead of him, as did his wife who was but 24.
I can remember that day as clearly as if it happened yesterday though it happened over a decade ago. The pain has lessened, to a degree. I can at least talk about it, instead of being stymied by an inarticulate horror that consumed me for many months afterwards.
An arsonist is the terrorist of the Australian bush. Lighting a fire in tinder dry bush mid summer is like a terrorist planting a bomb on a city street. You don’t know who you will kill, but you’re pretty sure you will kill or maim someone: a fire-fighter trying to extinguish the flames, a resident defending their home or panicked people just trying to flee a smoke-filled hell.
This week amidst the smoke of the ‘burn offs’, amidst the autumn cool, Victoria Police again asked for help to find the arsonist. They believe they are close to finding the murderer but they need the public’s help. There is a $100,000 reward standing for information leading to the arsonist’s arrest and conviction.
Anyone reading this who has suspicions or who knows anything about the fires on that day please come forward. Justice must be done, and the families and friends of those who died on that day need closure. And anyone, in any part of Australia, who reads this, and knows someone who has this peculiar sickness – this propensity to light fires -get help for them, ‘dob’ them in, do anything to stop this happening again.
After all, it is a coward’s way to murder with a match.
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