CL wrote:
> jwb@csse.monash.edu.au wrote:
>> CL <flothru@yahoo.com> dixit:
>>> Isn't ビクトリア州の山火事 an annual event?  Sort of like matsuri time
>>> in 盛岡市?  
>> Indeed. The change this summer was to have them start so early, and to
>> have such a big one (it started as a heap of small fires after lightning
>> strikes, but eventually coalesced.
> 
> Not like the ones in California where they're lit by pyromaniacs, then.
>  Australians have to rely on divine intervention, like Texans do?

In the Northern Territory and Western Australia, they are set by
friendly forest rangers in the name of fire control. One time they came
by and set the beach I was on ablaze without so much as a "how do you
do?" Big truck drove up with a big flamethrower rig, lit everything they
could see on fire, and drove away.

Aside from the legalized pyromania, I think that northwestern Australia
is one of the nicest areas of the earth.

KWW