Australians' anger flares from arsons

SYDNEY, Australia -- Australians struggled to contain their outrage Thursday after learning that nearly half the fires that have laid waste to much of the country's most populous state were deliberately lit -- many by bored children looking for a quick thrill.

For 11 days, residents of New South Wales have watched in horror as dozens of wildfires blackened hundreds of thousands of acres of forest and farmland, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes.

No lives have been lost, but almost 170 houses have been destroyed north, west and south of Sydney, a city of 4 million where skies are now filled with smoke. Insurance officials estimate the damage at $36 million.

Police have arrested 21 arson suspects, including 14 teen-agers and children, ages 9 to 16. The majority are boys, some from the very communities that have gone up in smoke.

The wave of arson is one of the worst ever in Australia and has prompted angry demands for tough penalties for firebugs, whatever their age.

"They should be locked up so they might do no further harm," Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper said. "Many might even argue jail is too good for them."

The young suspects have been characterized as troublemakers with too much time on their hands. The so-called "black Christmas fires" started when most schools were closed for vacation.

"It's enormously frustrating to think that firefighters from all over Australia are placing their lives on the line and there are people out there deliberately lighting fires," said Ian Krimmer, superintendent of the New South Wales fire brigade.

Half caused by lightning

The fires, slightly more than half of which are believed to have been started by lightning, have found easy fuel in Australia's tinder-dry forests, quickly becoming towering infernos.

On Thursday, nearly 20,000 firefighters were battling more than 100 blazes, which if combined would stretch for 1,200 miles. In Sydney's northern suburbs, fires burning in scrubland threatened hundreds of homes.

South of the city, thousands of evacuees from two coastal villages took refuge on nearby beaches after a fast-moving firestorm isolated their communities and burned as many as 20 houses in a third village.

About 7,000 people, many of them summer vacationers, ran for their lives Wednesday night when the inferno raced into Sussex Inlet, about 120 miles south of Sydney, police said.

The blaze swept north on Thursday, cutting off roads to the nearby towns of Bendalong and Berringer Lake and trapping 2,000 people, said Rural Fire Service spokeswoman June Webster.

Desperate officials announced Thursday they will turn to American technology for help, renting two massive water-dumping helicopters from Erickson Air Crane Inc. of Central Point, Ore.

The choppers, known as S-64 heli-tankers, are widely used in North America and Europe. They can suck 3,500 gallons of water into their tanks in 45 seconds from a lake or river and then dump it on flames.

Searching for explanations

Experts sought to explain the young arsonists' actions.

"Fires are very exciting things, particularly for children," said Kerry Hempenstall, psychology professor at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

"But the most dangerous group, the group we call genuine pyromaniacs ... are individuals with serious psychological problems. They get a terrible buildup of tension that seems to be only relieved when they light a fire," he said.

The culprits will often hang around a fire scene and will sometimes volunteer to help fight it -- perversely to win praise, Hempenstall said.

Other arsonists act out of revenge for being abused as children, said psychiatrist Julian Parmegiani.

"They've got a history of behavioral problems, often a history of institutionalization, poor relationships with family and intelligence is usually average to below average," he said.

An outraged New South Wales government promised to punish the offenders for what Premier Bob Carr called acts of "madness and wickedness."

While adult offenders face prison terms of up to 14 years, young arsonists will likely have to confront burn victims and families who lost homes, and work on rehabilitation projects for scorched forests.

"I want to rub their noses in the ashes they have caused," Carr said.