How do bushfires start?
Information from the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) shows that approximately 600 bushfires occur within Victorian public land each year. There are 26% that are caused by lightning and the rest the result of human activities.
Source – http://www.dse.vic.gov. au/dse/nrenfoe.nsf
|
Fire Cause
|
Average number of fires each year
|
Percentage of total fires
|
|
Lightning
|
149
|
26%
|
|
Deliberate
|
145
|
25%
|
|
Agricultural
|
96
|
16%
|
|
Campfires
|
59
|
10%
|
|
Cigarettes / Matches
|
41
|
7%
|
|
Miscellaneous
|
26
|
5%
|
|
Machinery / Exhausts
|
15
|
3%
|
|
Prescribed Burn Escapes
|
9
|
2%
|
|
Public Utilities
|
7
|
1%
|
|
Cause Unknown
|
37
|
6%
|
The Bushfire CRC and Australian Institute of Criminology Research on bushfire arson gives some of the most recent research into bushfire arson –
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/rpp/61/06_part2.html