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News Response :: Power firm faces legal action over bushfires

Unless you've been living under a rock recently (or possibly in a country other than Australia) you'll know about the bushfires that recently caused so many deaths in Victoria. Some of the fires (definately the ones near Beechworth) where started by powerlines across the state, and, something that's not mentioned in this article, is that many more smaller fires have been started over the past couple of months by power infrastructure. The fact is the extreme heat, coupled with the high loads being handled by power infrastructure today, is putting an enormous strain on our power infrastructure. Today people want huge TV's, computers, gaming consoles and all of this is resulting on an increased load on our power systems. The power companies I'm sure are upgrading lines and supply services as quickly as is efficient but it does seem that current systems are starting to fail under the pressure.

But the main issue of late seems to be the heat, which brings with it alot of problems, particularly relating to cables expanding and contracting with temparature changes. While the heat has subsided now it's important to remember at the time alot of issues where seen, including the issues with trains not being able to run. The heat and strange wind conditions probably caused the fire at Beechworth (I'm not commenting on the one in the article because I don't have firsthand knowledge) and it simply could not be contained because of the weather conditions.

But I've gone on long enough, on to the article. It talks about a moronic group of bloodsucking lawyers (no offence meant to any lawyers out there, except the ones in the article) taking on the company that manages the power infrastructure that may have started the fires near Horsham. For one thing, this is jumping the gun because the cause hasn't been established, but secondly, what good is this supposed to bring. It'll be legal battle that will cost both sides heavily and only result in the power company having less money to maintain a network that obviously needs attention.

So this court case will do nothing except take money away from the companies that did incredibly well under harsh conditions to restore power. I'm disturbed that anyone would be so stupid and damn short sighted as to encourage this case, but it seems they are. It's court cases like these that add infinite amounts of red tape to everything and make it harder for things to get done. But hey, that's not important, all the lawyers in this case care about is the money.

The fact is, even if the power lines started the fire, what right do people have to claim money from them? IMHO none... Not an ounce... Fires are often started by faulty electrical equipment, but obviously these people seem to think that ANY faulty equipment is unnaceptable which means that power companies will have to shut down power more often to ensure that such things don't occur again, and yet they still will. These fires happen all the time, a possom gets fried by lines somehow and some sparks hit the ground, the heat causes earthing cables to warp an then they break causing sparks, and usually the CFA is on hand to secure the incident before it gets serious.

The fact is the weather was so shocking there is nothing that could be done to prevent the fire getting large enough to be unmanageable. People need to accept that these fires happened, stop trying place blame (except in the case of arson) and rebuild their lives. Cases like this do nothing for anyone in the long or short term, eventually the people may get some small settlement, or they may not, in the long run everyone looses.

Except the lawyers, I'm sure they'll sue again when the milk in their office goes off because the power company had to cut power to do complex checks to ensure their lines are still safe... And I'm sure they would to...

Article Source - http://www.theage.com.au/national/power-firm-faces-legal-action-over-bushfires-20090313-8xj2.html