Friday 24 January 1997
Bushfire investigators face a grim question: Who killed Genevieve, Graham and Jennifer?
By SANDRA McKAY
city reporter
Arsonists ignited a chain of five fires within an hour on the slopes of the Dandenong Ranges early on Tuesday, causing the raging bushfires that claimed three lives and destroyed 33 houses, police revealed yesterday.
Suspicious vehicles were seen between 11am and midday in the areas where the fires were lit. Detectives believe one or more adults were involved.
Forensic investigations show the fires were lit with matches or a lighter. The first was in Fussell Road, Kilsyth. The fourth blaze - lit a kilometre away in Tobruk Avenue, The Basin - swept through Ferny Creek, killing a young married couple, Jennifer and Graham Lindroth, and their neighbor, Genevieve Erin, 50, as they sheltered in the basement of the Lindroths' house.
Survivors from Seabreeze Avenue said it was likely their neighbors had not realised the ferocity of the fires.
Ms Erin, a communications teacher at Eastern TAFE, was last seen running dazed along the narrow road.
Ms Jacqui Bell, Mrs Lindroth's mother, spoke to her daughter moments before the fire swept through Seabreeze Avenue, pleading with her to leave.
But Mrs Lindroth replied that there was no one around, no sirens and no smoke.
It appears the Lindroths had offered sanctuary to their neighbor, whose body was found in the foundations of their house.
Detective Senior Sergeant Adrian Edwards said police did not yet have firm descriptions of suspects, but murder charges could be laid.
``I think one only has to look at the devastation and the despair that's been left behind and it's very hard to comprehend that a person could
commit such an act,'' Senior Sergeant Edwards said.
Senior Sergeant Edwards said the police were not necessarily looking for local culprits as the five sites were all accessible from main roads and would not have required local knowledge.
In other developments yesterday, the Metropolitan Fire Brigade said it was forced to disconnect from the controversial Intergraph dispatch system at the height of the fires.
The Premier, Mr Jeff Kennett, said he would seek a briefing on what went wrong after complaints by the MFB's chief fire officer, Mr Jeff Godfredson.
Earlier, Mr Kennett said communications during the bushfire had been ``better than ever before'', but this was based on advice from the Country Fire Authority, which is yet to
switch to the privately run 000 system.
Mr Godfredson said his officers had to resort to whiteboards and hand-held scanners when Integraph buckled under the number of fire calls.
The Opposition emergency services spokesman, Mr Andre Haermeyer, said the system had been plagued with difficulties since its inception,
and an inquiry was urgently needed.
Mr Haermeyer, who visited fire-ravaged areas this week, also called for a statewide audit of fuel-reduction activities after complaints from CFA volunteers.
``It is quite clear that a lot
of the fuel-reduction and fire-prevention activities that have traditionally been undertaken by local councils and by government authorities have not been done as effectively as one would expect it to be done,'' he said.
A Dandenongs fire brigade chief said that firefighters' lives had unnecessarily been put at further risk because roadside slashing had not been done.
Australia's largest rural union, the Australian Workers Union, yesterday accused the Government of reckless negligence over what it said were cuts to fire staff numbers in the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.
The union said departmental staff involved in fire-prevention activities such as debris removal, block clearances and grass cutting had fallen from 4500 in 1986 to 350 at the end of last year.
The CFA's risk manager for the Dandenong Ranges, Mr Michael Hill, denied that a delay by the Yarra Ranges Shire Council in slashing roadside grass had contributed to the fires.
Mr Hill said clearing roadsides gave crews access to sites that were burning, but CFA trucks were not hindered reaching those areas this week.
He was responding to disclosures that fire captain Ken Stewart, from the Kalorama CFA, had written last week to his local MP, Mr Stephen McArthur, warning that bureaucracy had hampered fire-protection efforts before the high-fire-danger period.
The chief executive officer for the Yarra Ranges Shire Council, Mr Eric Howard, said roadside slashing had been delayed by the earlier-than-expected total fire ban days, which had meant that slashing had been prohibited.
