Inside the deranged minds of Australia's fire killers

[lostinblue 1,989]

Inside the deranged minds of Australia's fire killers

IT WAS the middle of the night when Sarah Mahoney woke up to the sound of breaking glass and small explosions.

Her room at the Childers Palace Backpackers Hostel was filled with thick, black smoke. She clutched the hand of her roommate, Hui-Kyong Lee, and told her they had to get out.

She couldn't see, she couldn't breathe.

After first crawling in a direction blocked by fire, Ms Mahoney eventually escaped to the front veranda followed by several fellow backpackers, according to a coronial inquest into the incident.

Ms Lee was found dead in the hallway. One of 15 people killed in the June 2000 fire, started by Robert Long.

Long is one of Australia's fire killers.

Australians often hear about the terrible death toll caused by young men toting high-powered assault weapons in the United States.

Just this week, a 12-year-old opened fire on his peers at a New Mexico high school, gravely wounding one student and injuring another.

But in Australia, since Martin Bryant's 1996 shooting of 35 people in Port Arthur, the real weapon used in mass killings has been fire, rather than guns.

There has not been a mass shooting in Australia - defined by criminologists as a shooting involving the deaths of four or five people - since the Tasmanian tragedy.

A reader image of the Black Saturday bushfires. Picture: Supplied Source: NewsComAu

There have been three killings where men have intentionally lit fires that killed more than 10 people.

And each time the temperatures rise, as they have this past fortnight, authorities warn of the potential for another tragedy.

Just last week, the acting Victorian Emergency Services Minister Edward O'Donohue urged people to dob in anyone who is suspected of starting a fire.

INSIDE THE MIND OF AN ARSONIST

"Arsonists are responsible for a significant proportion of bushfires, some of which have ended in tragedy, and the community has a part to play in stopping them," Mr O'Donohue said.

But what motivates these Australians to cause such tragedy?

The only universal trait is they are troubled men.

BLACK SATURDAY

The Black Saturday blaze of February 2009 has been talked of a lot this week, as firefighters witness the worst fire conditions in five years.

173 Australians died in those fires, one of the nation's biggest catastrophes since World War II. Ten died in a blaze in Churchill.

Brendan Sokaluk, who is autistic and has a mild intellectual disability, was accused of deliberately lighting that fire.

Brendan James Sokaluk. Picture: Herald Sun Source: NewsComAu

The former volunteer fireman claimed he flung a cigarette ember, within a paper napkin, from his car window in a panic. The fire started by accident, he said.

Few bought the excuse. Prosecutor Ray Elston SC told court he had no legitimate reason to be in the area that day.

In March 2012 a jury found him guilty of 10 counts of arson causing death.

Neighbours said he was fascinated by fire. Former colleagues told Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper he could be "very vindictive" and "threatening".

After the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, he announced to workmates one lunchtime that if anyone did anything to him, 'I'll shoot youse all', they said.

Everyone believed then, the newspaper said. He is now Victoria's worst killer.

NSW NURSING HOME

Roger Dean. Picture: Nine Network Source: NewsComAu

Arsonist Roger Dean felt a "sense of evil" come over him as he lit up the NSW nursing home where he worked.

The registered nurse wanted to cover up his theft of more than 200 painkillers from the home's treatment cupboard. He told police in his interview he "didn't think it would be disastrous".

Three people died in the inferno, eight in hospital.

A granddaughter of one victim, Dorothy Sterling, aged 85, told The Daily Telegraph she often wondered whether her grandmother died scared.

"We picture our nana, we (have to) think if she was scared or if she was screaming, needing help," Amanda Tucker said.

Dean will never leave prison. He pleaded guilty to 11 counts of murder and eight of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm.

The families don't think any punishment could ever be enough. "Rot in hell," cried a relative of one of the victims at Dean's sentencing.

BACKPACKER KILLINGS

In the case of Robert Paul Long, prosecutors alleged it was a hatred of backpackers that drove him to light the fire which killed Hui-Kyong Lee and 14 others.

The fruitpicker possessed a "boiling" hatred of the young travellers, a media report said at the time of his conviction, and had a history of menace and mental illness.

Murderer: Robert Long in handout picture. Source: NewsComAu

Long, who also lodged at the hostel, left owing money to its managers and resurfaced days before the crime, leaving a suicide note.

When he was arrested by police during a chase marked by multiple gunshots, inquest documents quoted Long saying: "I'm dying anyway, I started that fire."

Justice Peter Dutney labelled it a "callous and cruel crime" and he received life imprisonment for the murder of two of the backpackers.

During the height of NSW fire crisis last year, a clinical psychologist told news.com.au many arsonists use fire to channel their rage at the world.

Dr Troy McEwan, clinical psychologist at the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science at Monash University, said these arsonists were "angry or feel they've been treated unjustly".

"They don't have the ability to express that (anger)…," he said. "They use fire to express their feelings of revenge."

And those feelings have left terrible tragedies in their wake.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

The need to outlaw fire

[lostinblue 1,989]

I thought everyone was safe when gun control. is on the books No mass murders.

[GandD 5,966]

I thought everyone was safe when gun control. is on the books No mass murders.

That's because you're hearing what you want to hear instead of what other people are saying.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

That's because you're hearing what you want to hear instead of what other people are saying.

That happens a lot on this forum. I have two thoughts: Psychological projection and strawmen.

[GandD 5,966]

That happens a lot on this forum. I have two thoughts: Psychological projection and strawmen.

Oh yeah. We need a strawman mod.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

I thought everyone was safe when gun control. is on the books No mass murders.

Glad you wrote this, I spent the better half of the morning thinking you had moved onto bigger and better things.

[X Factor 1,112]

Don't ban fires ~ ban matches lol

[Darnell 8,479]

dob in? = pound them to a pulp with blunt objects? Oh - I hope so - that's swell !

[Póg mo 1,749]

The need to outlaw fire

No, they just brought in better government regulations that required hotels and hostels to be better prepared against the risk of fire. They won't stop every arsonist, but I am not sure what you would have the Australian government do differently. Edited June 14, 2014 by InKorea

[Peikko 1,575]

I can't think of any good reason to link the two phenomena. Was the person writing the article congratulating himself that the US is not the only place where people kill other people? How unutterably bizarre. Moreover if someone wants to discuss and investigate arsonists, then there are a good few available incarcerated in California. The author didn't really need to hop off to Australia to look into this issue

Edited June 14, 2014 by The Truth™