THE death toll in the nation's worst bushfires has risen to 108, and Senior police fear more victims will be found.
Police confirmed today the numbers of fatalities had reached triple figures, as firefighters discovered more bodies overnight.
Victoria Police chief commissioner Christine Nixon warned the public to prepare for news of more deaths.
”I still think that we do have more to find, and that will be because we are getting into different areas that were previously too hot for us to go there," she told Melbourne radio.
”Now the CFA and Victoria Police are going there and, of course, finding people in those locations."
Police said 20 people had died at Kinglake West; 12 at Kinglake; 10 at St Andrews; 10 at Callignee; 8 at Marysville; 7 at Steeles Creek; 5 at Hazelwood; 5 at Flowerdale; 4 at Wondong; 4 at Humevale; 4 at Koornalla; 3 at Taggerty; 2 at Strathewan; 2 at Jeeralang; 2 at Mudgegonga; 2 at Hazeldene; 1 at Arthurs Creek, Eaglehawk, Long Gully and Yarra Glen.
Firefighters continued to battle fires this morning, with the town of Stanley near Beechworth potentially under threat. .
Victoria Police had confirmed 108 people dead, including four children in one house, while the CFA said more than 100 people were still unaccounted for.
Up to 700 homes and 340,000ha of land were destroyed. More than 3730 people had registered with the Red Cross as having left their properties and the total homeless figure is expected to be much higher.
Among those confirmed dead was Brian Naylor, one of the state's most recognised faces as a long-time newsreader for the Nine Network, and a resident of one of the worst-affected areas in Kinglake. Mr Naylor's wife, Moiree, also perished.
State government officials were worried the final number of people killed could double to about 130 by the time the search of all properties was completed.
"Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria in the last 24 hours and many good people now lie dead, many others lie injured," Kevin Rudd said yesterday as he pledged both financial aid and the support of the Australian Defence Force for the recovery effort.
Despite repeated warnings in the lead-up to Saturday's heatwave, the state was overwhelmed by a series of fires, some of them believed to be deliberately lit, that stretched from the South Australian to the NSW borders, up the centre of Victoria, and down toward the coast in Gippsland.
"The firefighters were hit early and hit hard and the fires were impossible to control," Victorian Premier John Brumby said last night. "It was worse than Ash Wednesday and Black Friday."
In a cruel twist of nature, while Melburnians greeted a cool change late on Saturday afternoon after the mercury had hit a record high of 46.4C - the highest for any Australian capital city - the shifting winds turned a fire one hour to the city's northeast in the Kinglake area into a raging inferno.
Of the 700 or so properties destroyed so far throughout the state, 550 were from this pocket of the picturesque Yarra Valley.
Across the Great Dividing Range, the postcard-perfect township of Marysville was flattened to a ghastly mess of rubble and soot, with only one or two buildings left standing. So far two people have been confirmed dead, including 73-year-old Marie Walsh, but townsfolk fear there are up to 11 bodies lying in those ruins, or in the surrounding ashes. Some of those are feared to be children.
"I asked one friend about her dad and she just looked blankly at me and said, 'He's gone'," said Stephen Collins, manager of Marysville's Kooringa resort. "I believe 11 friends have perished."
When snow comes to Victoria's high country, Marysville is a charming coffee stop on the road to the ski slopes. When the wind and heat came on Saturday, bringing with it fire of devastating intensity, Marysville was razed.
On the suburban outskirts of Bendigo, the home town of Mr Brumby, a cigarette butt flicked from a passing car is believed to have started a fire that claimed at least two lives.
The nation went to bed on Saturday night with the news that 14 were already dead and with police saying the final number could be in the 40s.
By 5pm yesterday, the count had been put at 50, which surpassed the 47 Victorian lives lost in the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires. The Ash Wednesday fires had claimed a further 29 people in South Australia, for a total of 76 dead. That unwanted record was matched at 8.10pm yesterday when police confirmed 76 dead and at 9.30pm the toll was raised to 84. Although it is too early for explanations or recriminations, CFA officials said many of the victims lost their lives because they fled too late.
"If we want a key message out of this - and I'm not second-guessing the cause because we're not far advanced - it is about keeping off the road," CFA deputy chief officer Steve Warrington said. "It about not being anywhere near a road during a fire event, and that probably refers to late-minute evacuations, do not do it."
But for every horror story of people who failed to outrun the flames, there are heroic escapes. Gary Hughes, a senior writer for The Australian's Melbourne bureau, writes today of his family's brush with death. They lost their home at St Andrews, in the Kinglake area. But they count themselves lucky as 12 of their neighbours are already confirmed dead. St Andrews had the largest individual death toll as of 8pm last night, followed by 12 in Kinglake and a further 10 in Kinglake West.
As survivors and firefighters emerged from the Kinglake area, they would hear the earlier bodycounts, shake their head and say: "No, it's many more than that."
Throughout the area's blackened rolling hills and gullies there were dreadful accounts of death.
People perished in their homes and on the roads as they fled. One woman, a firefighter, died at St Andrews when she returned to her home to save her animals.
A man from Mount Beauty was found on the outskirts of St Andrews separated from his motorbike. Firefighters believe he was running for his life.
Firefighters described chaotic scenes of cars that had crashed into trees or into one another and that were yesterday black and smouldering, some of them with their doors flung open.
Police believe that six people died in a pile-up of cars on the outskirts of Kinglake.
Reaction to the unfolding drama was swift, and moving. Authorities received offers of help from firefighters in NSW, Canberra, South Australia and Tasmania.
The Prime Minister spoke to Mr Brumby in the early hours of Sunday and offered the services of the Australian Defence Force.
The offer was accepted. The federal Government will match dollar-for-dollar what the state raises for a community relief fund.
Mr Rudd visited a CFA command centre in Kangaroo Ground, south of the Kinglake area, and joined Mr Brumby and Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon for one of many sombre press conferences held through the day.
Mr Rudd said this was an appalling tragedy for the state, and for the nation.
"To echo what the Premier said before, our first response as human beings is one of just the deepest empathy for people whose lives have now been devastated," Mr Rudd said.
"This loss of life, the numbers of injured and horrific injuries, our thoughts and our prayers go out to each and everyone of them as they now try and deal with this tragedy and recover from the damage which has occurred.
"Also as human beings we salute the extraordinary courage of all the emergency services workers. And, the Premier and I've heard just some small stories of this today, there'll be others larger told later on."
Additional reporting: Stuart Rintoul, Corrie Perkin
I don't really have much to add, except it's been an awful weekend, the story and videos speak for themselves. I live 300km and more or so away but my town of Young was blanketed by the smoke last night.
I hope Kenny Weir is ok. I'm not sure if he lives in Melbourne or the outskirts where some of the worst of these fires occured.
We are just coming out of the worst heat wave in my experience. Melbourne has recorded temperatures of up to around 47C (116F), the highest on record.
Last edited by john williams; February-9th-2009 at 12:47 AM.
On Saturday, I was quite chuffed with how Bennie & I handled Melbourne's hottest ever day (46.5C/115.52F). Out and about early - kung fu, lunch etc - then home for the afternoon, me getting into a bath tub of cold water every 1/2 hour or so. Somehow I stayed away from the news till about 9pm when I was stunned to hear 14 people had died, so our simply coping seemed like horribly misplaced smugness. Since then the toll has simply climbed and climbed. Severals towns have simply gone.
Many people were caught out and died umimaginably awful deaths despite fire plans and careful preparations based on previous years' disasters. All that did them no good, so fast were the fires.
There's an extra horrible aspect of all this: As in previous years, a not insignificant number of the fires have been started by arsonists. Contemplating this defies logical brain activity. For us city dwellers, being robbed, beaten or otherwise fucked over by one of next door neighbours would be shocking - but not really a personal issue, if you follow me. For these bush folk, having their lives destroyed by these guys - yes, they're all men - must be incomprehensible. These people's lives are intertwined on every level in a way that simple doesn't happen in cities. And get this: So much a part of their communities are these killers, that all too often they are well-established members of their volunteer fire brigades. Very sick stuff.
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Kenny no longer on the radio. Seeking radio station that isn't so pigeonhole-bound that it can't handle an approach that takes in Louis Armstrong, Sun Ra, the Grateful Dead and Bob Wills.
Last edited by kenny weir; February-8th-2009 at 11:47 PM.
I was in a state of numb shock over the weekend but this really hit me today. Some of the news coverage has annoyed me but just seeing some of the still photos online really shook me today. Somehow the stills say more than the tv reportage.
I'm also shocked and dismayed by these arsonists. I agree with Rudd that they are mass murderers. They should be treated as such and get life without parole as a minimum.
Horrendous! My wife's brother is in Balnarring, and we've been in contact in recent days. We also have a dozen nieces, nephews and their kids between there and Adelaide. Hope you get some rain. The thought that it's arson is very chilling.
There's an extra horrible aspect of all this: As in previous years, a not insignificant number of the fires have been started by arsonists. Contemplating this defies logical brain activity.
This will happen down in Florida every now and then. I'd assume it probably does in California as well.
There is no logic in a arsonist's mind. They simply like to see things burn.
We had a buddy that we grew up with in Florida who was an otherwise sane and rational man. But, he went all arsonist on us and was on the run for many years until they finally caught him and he's rotting in prison now. He came from a nice family, had plenty of money, lots of nice shit, everyone got along fairly well, etc...
All the fires are being treated as crime scenes, which is leading to friction between police and victims over access.
__________________
Kenny no longer on the radio. Seeking radio station that isn't so pigeonhole-bound that it can't handle an approach that takes in Louis Armstrong, Sun Ra, the Grateful Dead and Bob Wills.
__________________
Kenny no longer on the radio. Seeking radio station that isn't so pigeonhole-bound that it can't handle an approach that takes in Louis Armstrong, Sun Ra, the Grateful Dead and Bob Wills.
How come so many died? Is it simply a matter of the landscape - it doesn't look like there are any natural barriers. Looking at some of the destroyed homes, it reminds me of going through the Oakland Hills after those fires in the early 90s - nothing left but rubble. But I have never heard of so many deaths when we have fires anywhere in the states. The photos are truly terrifying. I note that the fires are not getting much media coverage in the States. The same thing happened with Greece's fires last year. My hairdresser told me what was happening there and I had had no idea what she was talking about.
Tippy, there are a few reasons for the number of deaths. Btw, your question is a very good one.
The 'defend or leave early' policy hasn't worked due the the unprecedented ferocity of these fires. With temperatures over 45c and high speed northerly winds, the conditions could not have been much worse. Some people either left their property too late, stayed and died in or around their homes or died in their cars trying to escape - either because of running off the road due to poor visibility, colliding with other cars or being unable to out run or escape the firestorms. I've heard of one man who could barely outrun the fire in his car and this was in the 1983 Ash Wednesday fire. He said the latest fires were much much worse.
The below tips
Quote:
Leaving early (Adapted from Webster, Joan (2008) "Essential Bushfire Safety Tips" CSIRO publishing, Collingwood, Victoria
'Leave early' does not mean getting as far away from the fire as possible. It's about finding a suitable and safe refuge that you are comfortable to go to. It relies on early warning.
If you are planning to 'go early' consider the following:
Where will you go?
How will you get there?
How long will it take to get there (allow extra time)
What will you take with you?
What will you do with your pets?
Who will you inform when you leave?
What will be your trigger to leave?
Uncertainties include:
How fast the fire is travelling
Spotting of new fires
Wind direction
Fire intensity
Travelling time
Destination-is it safe?
Number of traps/clearings on route
Road may be blocked by fallen trees, emergency vehicles, sightseers, stalled engines
Heat may stall the car
Smoke may make it impossible to see
You may crash due to the smoke
Your home/business is more likely to burn down without you there.
Benefits if you arrive safely at a refuge may be:
You will have others for company
You may have more shelter than at home
You may have protection of fire fighters.
Even if you plan to leave, you should still prepare a plan in case you are forced to stay. On high fire risk days bushfires can start at any time and spread very rapidly. Your first warning of a fire in the area may be the approach of flames and it will be too late to leave.
Stay & Defend
If you are planning to 'stay and defend' consider the following:
Where will you and other members of your family/household be?
What will you do if your children are at school when the fire starts?
Who will look after the pets?
What will you do if you have elderly relatives or young children living with you?
How will you protect your property?
How will you protect yourself?
How will you know what is going on during the fire?
Benefits of staying at home or workplace:
You can protect your property and precious possessions
You can douse spot fires while they are small
Doing something! Action helps manage fear
Familiarity of own surroundings
Children, and the elderly/frail can be more comfortable than in a strange crowded setting
You are much safer in your house than driving or walking
You have a much greater likelihood that you and your home will survive
You have more control of your own destiny.
Making the Decision
Talk to all family members. They may not all agree on what is the best strategy. It is important to respect everyone's decision.
The comment that you are 'much safer in your home' did not apply in the case of these recent fires. There is much debate on these issues at the moment.
Here's a personal account of a firestorm:
Quote:
I now understand the word 'firestorm'
Luke van den Berk
February 10, 2009
THERE wasn't much warning.
I'm on a good basis with the national park rangers … they are over the fence from me. Ranger Tony Fitzgerald was giving us updates on what was happening, but as we got our last update we could hear the fire coming up the ridge behind us. He went down the hill of the national park on one of the tourist roads and came back up and said the fires were 700 metres away. He said: "You can leave now if you want to. If you want to stay we will help you out if we can."
We decided to stay in the house. Within three minutes the flames were 30 to 40 metres high. There were horizontal sparks and embers — the wind was just incredible. The word "firestorm" — I have a clear understanding of it now.
We were inside the house and the noise outside was incredible. Sparks and embers were bashing up against the roof and the windows, the fence had caught fire, the woodpile against the house caught fire.
Then the windows started exploding — it sounded like a 747 taking off. It was broad daylight but it went dark because there was so much smoke and stuff — it just went dark.
The house was on fire. I had three attempts at getting everyone out safely — they were all in the lounge room. I kept going outside to see if we could get a decent path out, but the radiant heat was the killer. The first two times I went out, the radiant heat just forced me back in the house.
At that point I knew I had to wait for that initial part of the storm to pass over. Unfortunately, it consumed the house while we were in it. I shut all the bedroom doors.
We lost two cats and five kittens — I had to shut the bedroom door and we listened to them die. We saved our little dog, Cougar. It was traumatic for the kids. I had to shut the door because the windows had exploded and the bedrooms were on fire.
I made my third attempt at going outside. The radiant heat had passed a little, and I just thought, "We have to get out." I had buckets of water outside. I took them in and got sheets and towels, dipped them into the water and wrapped everyone up over their heads and their faces and told them we had to go.
When we were 100 metres from the house, the roof collapsed. That was one or two minutes after we got out.
We ran out into the street. There were flames everywhere. You just looked down the street and there was devastation. It was like the army came in and bombed the whole thing with napalm.
We were running down the street. Gas cylinders were exploding. A lot of the cylinders had safety features on them … apparently when a gas cylinder heats up, a valve releases and all the gas comes out of the cylinder, so there was lots of shhhh noises.
A lot of cars were exploding — it was like a war zone. We had to step over power lines, go under power lines, there were power poles falling over in front of us, trees coming down everywhere.
And the noise — all I can compare it to is the sound of a 747 taking off. We were running down the street and the radiant heat was getting at us. We had to keep moving. If you stood still you would have shrivelled.
We ran down the street for about a kilometre — there was just no one, no one to help. My girlfriend was going, "Where the hell are the fire brigade?" I said, "We are on our own, we have got to go." I just had to keep them going, I said, "Keep going, keep going, faster."
We got to one house about a kilometre away and there was someone there spraying water on it. We took refuge in their house. There was a lady inside. We were probably there for about 10 minutes.
I was popping in and out of the house because I was paranoid about what was going to happen. His pump stopped working and then his balcony caught fire and I just went back in and said, "We gotta go." My girlfriend didn't want to leave. I started swearing: "We have got to go f---ing now." We got the kids and the dog and we left … we left those people there. Fortunately we caught up with them at the third house we got to — our final refuge.
We went to another house where a man was watering down his house. He had his son with him. He told us to get inside and we felt quite safe. He was outside running round, wetting it all down. Then another 10 minutes went past and he said, "I can't save it — we've got to go."
We had to go only 50 metres over the road to the third house. It was owned by a lady who was a CFA member and she had left the firefighting front to come home and save her home. She was really well set up. She had fire pumps.
The kids sheltered in the basement part of the house — they were very traumatised. My daughter was having an asthma attack at that point. We had no medication and we had to get her down low on the floor because it was all full of smoke under the house as well. I just had to talk her through it, telling her, "You have just got to calm down, you have to breathe through it slowly, just relax, we are safe now."
When she was feeling a bit better I went out and helped the men. We were there for about half an hour until the bulk of the flames had left. Then we were just going around the house blacking out spot fires.
We stayed there for probably about an hour and then went to the local CFA and slept on the floor there for the night. Luke van den Berk is the caretaker of a 33-hectare Kinglake West property, owned by the Macedonian Church. When the firestorm hit, he was trapped in the house with his children — sons Aaron, 13, and Khyle, 12, and daughter Brodee, 16 — and his girlfriend, Lois MacDonald, 42. This is their story.
People died doing exactly what they were told to do
Philip Chubb
February 11, 2009
For all our preparation, it was pure luck that my family survived.
WE MOVED into our classic mud-brick house amid rolling paddocks and bush in Cottles Bridge, on the north-eastern outskirts of Melbourne, 10 years ago. The community was welcoming, inviting us to Landcare events, where we learnt how to plant trees, and to Country Fire Authority briefings with tea and biscuits, where we learnt what we should do when the trees caught fire.
We integrated well, getting to know a host of neighbours in Strathewen, St Andrews and Kinglake. We become close friends with actor Reg Evans and his partner, artist Angela Brunton, both of whom perished on Saturday.
The CFA was wonderful in its outreach efforts. Its officers came to our house and assessed our risk. They showed us videos and gave talks about how to survive a fire.
Mostly they told us we could survive. What we needed was appropriate equipment, clothes and a fire plan. The idea, they told us, is you wet down your house and fill the gutters so that flying embers ahead of the flames don't grab hold. When the fire gets close, everyone takes the hoses and scurries inside to wait it out in the darkest corner you can find, away from the radiant heat. When the fire has passed you take the hoses out again and squirt those nasty spot fires. Nerve-racking? Sure. But effective? You bet!
So on Saturday we all did what we were told to do. We implemented our fire plans. We had our two fire hoses out taut and ready for action, our two petrol pumps primed, our all-cotton fire gear donned. But then the wind changed and the fire that was ripping through the lives of our neighbours just to the north of us turned away with minutes to spare. As we were waiting we could hear the news on the scanner and radio - people are dying out there. And these were people like us, good neighbours and citizens with assiduously maintained fire plans. Our friends and neighbours died on Saturday doing what they were told to do.
I have had plenty of contact with the CFA and Department of Sustainability and Environment over the years, from volunteer firefighters to community liaison workers to senior officers, and without exception they have been dedicated, generous, community-minded and good. It's not their fault that what they told us to do when we moved in reflected conditions that were even then being overtaken by a new and wildly different climate.
When we moved into our rural haven at Cottles Bridge the clock started ticking on 10 years of well-below-average rainfall. The summers became hotter and hotter until this year, when day after day of intense heat left the landscape looking like it had been left in the oven too long. And the leaves on the trees we had been boldly planting all these years were burnt brown by the sun and shrivelled while I heaved buckets of water around the place trying desperately to sustain them.
The fire that dropped from the sky on Saturday plunged us into a new reality. Environmental conditions had changed drastically before our eyes, but the advice to the community had remained the same. Even on Saturday the urgent words were streaming out of the radio: Be safe! Stay inside!
Had the fireballs come as far as our place our hoses and pumps and cotton clothes and every other piece of paraphernalia we had accumulated (such as wet mops and buckets and a bath full of water) would have counted for nothing.
This fire was not what the CFA had in mind when it encouraged our communities to stay and fight. This was something new. As I was standing out the back of the house on Saturday, just after I had heard about the first three deaths down the road at Strathewen, I suffered a moment of blinding clarity. There I was, hose in hand, equipment gleaming, fire plan laminated, just as I had been advised. But if the fire had come barrelling over the hill behind me I knew we'd be dead. Philip Chubb is associate professor of journalism at Monash University.
I have a longstanding -- twelve years or so -- e-pen pal in Australia and was pleased to learn today that she's far from the fires. She's moved several times and I haven't kept up with geo-location because not necessary in e-world. Anyway, glad to have confirmed that she's not near the fires. Just sweltering, she says.
__________________
Away from the delusionary forces that turn music into a step to fame and fortune it becomes a reason to live." (David Morris)
Yeah, the heat wave has been awful and the hottest and longest in my lifetime. I'm glad your friend is ok Gary. Temperatures are much more pleasant now but summer isn't over yet. I'm a bit concerned about the hills around my old hometown of Adelaide. It will be a tinderbox now and disaster waiting to happen.
Last edited by john williams; February-11th-2009 at 07:16 PM.
I have never before read such harrowing fire stories. Those certainly provide a better perspective of what folks have been facing. I always took it for granted that you get in the car and leave – obviously the loss of all your possessions being truly catastrophic in and of itself but I didn’t realize how completely vulnerable some of you folks in Australia are that it would be safer to stay and let it pass hopefully quickly over/through you and then douse the remains. What an alternative. And that conditions conspired to make staying a losing bet too. The prospect of having to stay is humbling enough to my previous understanding of fire danger by itself. My thought are definitely with you and I hope at the very least that calmer temperatures remain.
February 12, 2009 - 1:39PM
Police have arrested two people in over Victoria's deadly bushfires following reports of suspicious behaviour near some of the worst devastation.
"The investigation is in its initial stages, two people are assisting police with inquiries," Victoria Police said in a statement.
Police say they responded to reports of suspicious behaviour between Seymour and Yea.
Fires in East Kilmore, between Yea and Seymour, started on Saturday and merged with the Yea-Murrindindi fire creating the massive Kinglake Complex fire.
This fire has burnt almost 230,000 hectares, destroyed 550 homes and killed at least 147 people in a wide area from Wandong, north of Melbourne, to Marysville and Taggerty.
The worst hit towns were Kinglake, Strathewen, St Andrews and Marysville.
Outgoing Victorian Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon said police were continuing to investigate whether arsonists caused more of the devastating bushfires that have so far claimed a total of 181 lives.
She said police now believed the Churchill fire, which claimed 21 lives, and the Marysville fire, where 15 people died, were deliberately lit.
"We're sure that the fire in Churchill ... was deliberately lit and we have now been given some information that makes us suspicious about the Marysville fire," she said on the Nine Network on Thursday.
"It's a matter of other fires that we're looking at as well. We're trying to get there as quickly as we can."
She said police had a large team gathering clues in the hunt for any arsonists behind any fires.
"We're very focused on this issue," Ms Nixon said.
"We're asking again the community to come forward, anybody who is suspicious, who has concerns."
Victoria's police announced on Tuesday it was setting up taskforce Phoenix to investigate all fire-related deaths from the bushfires.
Phoenix is bringing in 100 police to investigate the deaths and they are confident of making arrests.
Police had already spoken to some suspects over the deadly Victorian bushfires, Ms Nixon said.
"We're obviously working very hard on that investigation and we've spoken to a number of suspects so far, but it's still an ongoing investigation," she told the Seven Network on Thursday.
"We'll get there, but it is a matter of piecing together all of the evidence and getting information from the various groups so that we can add that to our current investigation."
The bushfires death toll stands at 181, with the final number expected be much higher. It's feared as many as 100 people may have been killed in Marysville alone.
Ms Nixon said police were prepared to lay a charge of murder by arson - with a 25-year jail penalty - against anyone believed to have caused one of the fatal bushfires.
She added that police had received reports that more fires had been deliberately lit since Saturday.
"We certainly have had reports of other fires being lit," Ms Nixon said.
"You and I would just be staggered by that, but that's what we're certainly seeing. We've been investigating those as well."
South Australian Premier Mike Rann's idea of putting convicted or suspected arsonists under surveillance during high fire risk periods sounded like a "reasonable strategy", she said.
Reko Rennie
February 16, 2009 - 2:36PM
A 39-year-old Gippsland man charged with deliberately lighting a bushfire that claimed the lives of at least 11 people has failed to appear in a Melbourne court this morning.
The Age can now reveal the identity of the man as Brendan Sokaluk, 39, of Churchill, who is charged over a fatal bushfire at Churchill in Victoria's southeast. Sokaluk was due to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court this morning charged with arson causing death, lighting a bushfire and possessing child pornography.
Sokaluk's lawyer Helen Spowart told Magistrate John Klestadt the defendant had chosen not to appear in court. Requesting the continuation of an order suppressing Sokaluk's identity, Ms Spowart told the court there were fears for the accused's safety if his details were made public.
"His security cannot be guaranteed for one day," Ms Spowart said.
Ms Spowart said Sokaluk would be targeted for retribution.
"So it's important to ensure his safety," Ms Spowart said.
But denying her request, Magistrate Klestadt said it would be a matter of time before Sokaluk's identity would be known within the prison system.
"Any prison system has its jungle drums...how is the suppression going to protect the anonymity," Magistrate Klestadt said.
John-Paul Cashen, representing media outlets, said no evidence had been called to say the man was in danger. He said murderers and pedophiles appeared in court every day and their names were not suppressed. Magistrate Klestadt said it had been widely reported that members of the Churchill community already knew the man's identity.
"I'm not satisfied that the publication of the defendant's name would pose such present and obvious danger to him or that of his family," Magistrate Klestadt said. He varied a suppression order made last Friday, saying "these are matters of enormous public concern ... his identity will be well-known in days [so] the suppression order would be of little practical effect".
During the file hearing, prosecutor Chris Beale requested a longer-than-usual period to serve the brief because of a large number of statements to be gathered from witnesses in relation to Sokaluk.
The court heard there would be up to 200 witnesses. "It's a complex investigation," Magistrate Klestadt said.
Sokaluk was remanded in custody to appear at a committal mention on May 26.
The arson charge carries a maximum penalty of 25 years, with the bushfire charge carrying a maximum penalty of 15 years.The Churchill fire burnt out more than 30,000 hectares and killed 21 people.
Earlier today, Victorians were urged not to threaten Sokaluk's safety.
"Coming to court and protesting is not an appropriate thing to do," Victorian Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon said before the hearing.
"We hope that we don't have to deal with a gang of people who are angry and concerned about this arrest. We know people are. "We will make sure he is protected and can go before the justice system, as he should, and be dealt with through that process." This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/national/ch...0216-88bq.html
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