It has been an acknowledged problem for some years that the firefighting services attract those who are excited about fires for all the wrong reasons. And others do it for revenge-type reasons. Some years back we got tired of the level of ("alleged"; remember that!) corruption by the local hierarchy and the captain of the local bushfire brigade. So we did some constructive enrolment (others called it branch stacking) and replaced the wannabe-farmers BBQ & social club with people who took training and responsibility seriously. Over the next three weeks we were called out to a fire every two days. Each one had been carefully lit so that, id the response was quick enough and competent enough it could be controlled; if this hadn't been the case, the entire area (downwind and uphill) would have been at risk.

Well, we were quick and effective and it rather polished our performance. After we let it be known to various people previously connected to the brigade that we had reported these fires to the police as suspected arson, they ceased.

Funny, that!

Cheers, Rowan