It was another FReeper who posted that satellite photo of widespread, far-flung fires dotting the State of Victoria up and down the length and breadth.
There is no way, no way, that could have been natural. This had to have been organized arson. There were other articles of Islamist websites threatening “Fire Jihad” several years previously.
They published an artist’s computer image of one of the people seen setting the fires. He certainly looked SE Asian to me. Most people believe he is Bangladeshi; apparently there are a lot of Bangladeshis in Australia, virtually all of them Muslim. He’s suspected of setting the Marysville fire, where many people died.
Also, they actually arrested a man in another fire - and refused to release his name. I wonder why?
Actually, it could rather easily be natural - Friday night, before the fires of Saturday - there were dry thunderstorms across wide areas of rural Victoria. Lots of lightning.
Some of the fires were deliberately lit. Forensic examination is indicating many of them were not. The possibility of some organised group lighting some of the deliberately lit fires can’t be eliminated, but there’s no automatic reason to assume it’s the case.
Bushfire is common in Australia. On any given day over summer, you expect 200 bushfires to be burning somewhere in Victoria. Most are small and in areas where they can be allowed to burn themselves out - but on a day with high winds and very high temperatures, things change a lot.