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> People who light fires (they all seem to be individuals who get off > on it) seem to have a very particular sickness. I don't understand > it. There was a guy, a middle-aged man who drank all day, who used to live in these flats but is now awaiting trial for a series of arson attacks aroundabouts, who used to talk to me in the lobby or the lifts. He was forever cracking off-colour jokes and would go to local churches pretending to be homeless for free meals. All I could understand about him was that 'keep clear' signals flashed through my mind whenever he neared. What his psychology was, is, I think only he knows. While one of the most disquieting things I have seen recently was a documentary on the ironically named Burnley Wood area of said town, a district of almost Third World poverty where houses cannot sell for 5 thousand pounds. The principal pastime of the local kids is starting fires both small and petty and full house burnings. There Guy Fawkes bonfires were spectacular, and enthusiastic, but also involved the dismemberment of empty houses as fuel. Best Dave David Bircumshaw Leicester, England Home Page A Chide's Alphabet Painting Without Numbers www.paintstuff.20m.com/index.htm http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm ----- Original Message ----- From: "Alison Croggon" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2002 12:56 AM Subject: Re: Happy New Year > Alot of the fires were lit by aronists, but others are the result of > lightning strikes. "Arson-terrorism" seems an inaccurate term to me; > arson will do. So far nobody has been killed, and hopefully nobody > will be. But the damage to the national parks must be very grim. > Though I suppose one must also remember that many Australia plants > need fire to seed, though the increased ferocity of recent fires, > ironically because they are not as regular as they once were and have > more fuel, might be too destructive. > > Bush has an amazing capacity for regeneration. If you go through > bushland six months after fire it has an eerie beauty - all that new > fresh green on the black. > > Being a country child I remember the fires in my childhood - it was I > think 1979 when very bad ones burnt a lot of the Western District in > Victoria. I remember being driven through a small town, Strathan, > which was completely burnt out while the firefighters were out > somewhere battling another fire and the spooky thing of a street of > houses completely reduced to ash, with one in the middle completely > untouched. Acres of black with the bloated and burned corpses of > sheep and cattle in the paddocks, their legs sticking up. My father > coming home completely black and red eyed after fighting fires in the > state forest behind us. Or Ash Wednesday here, watching a huge > bloodred moon rise through the smoke, and flaming bits of bark > falling even in the middle of the city. Enough to give anyone a > feeling of doom. Horrible. > > People who light fires (they all seem to be individuals who get off > on it) seem to have a very particular sickness. I don't understand > it. > > Best > > Alison >