Fatal failure of electricity industry safety regulation

Day Ninety-Six of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission finally nailed it: up to 158 of the 173 deaths that occurred on Black Saturday, may ultimately be blamed on electricity industry spark events:

DEATH SCORECARD FOR BLACK SATURDAY 7TH FEBRUARY 2009

* Beechworth-Mudgegonga - two people died after a half-dead tree fell on a 22,000-volt power line

* Kilmore East - 119 people died after a corroded, faultily strung 43-year-old galvanized steel conductor spanning a 1,080 metre distance between two poles across a "gully" (valley, canyon) snapped in strong winds. All the experts agreed metal fatigue was the cause of weakening, but the experts are in furious disagreement if it was aeolian vibration, or repeated high-stress events (of unknown etiology). Technical evidence was that the design stress was almost 50% of safe working load, or breaking strain: approx 11 kN in a high wind, when the 3/12 SC-GZ conductor (three strands of 2.75mm high tensile steel) had a breaking strain of about 22 kN.

* Murrindindi Mill fire, Wilhelmina Falls Road, Murrindindi. 40 people died as the resultant firestorm roared into Narbethong, Buxton and Marysville over the following 3-6 hours. This fire is being VERY THOROUGHLY INVESTIGATED as arson by the Victoria Police, Phoenix Task Force - see http://media.theage.com.au/?rid=47569 - however there are also reliable media reports of a loud bang being heard just before the fire was observed, and Police have not yet charged the prime arson suspect, so any outcome, including electricity spark ignition from "clashing" power lines is still a hypothetical possibility.

Here is the RELIABLE NEWS REPORT of a bang being heard: http://www.theage.com.au/national/column-of-rising-smoke-signalled-deadly-gro...

A loud bang, sounding like a very close-by lightning strike, or like a close-by stun grenade, is highly characteristic of high-energy arc faults. These can and do occur when power lines "clash" in high winds.

Others would have you believe that most of the death and destruction was due to "not enough fuel reduction burning". I say if the Beechworth, Murrindindi and Kilmore East fires had not started, then their 158 victims would all still be alive, and massive fuel reduction efforts around Marysville did not save the town or its unfortunate residents anyway.

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