A teen boy was arrested on suspicion of starting a fire that spread to other regions and ruined over three dozen buildings.
The 16-year-old from Cobraball, Queensland, allegedly lit the fire on purpose at around 1.30 pm in what appears to be a “pathetic arson attack” according to the authorities.
After deliberately starting a fire, the flames have spread quickly to the surrounding regions and ended up engulfing 36 buildings including 14 homes of innocent families.
According to the police, the boy won’t be charged as he is a minor and falls under the protection of the Youth Justice Act.
Fortunately, no lives were lost during the human-caused fires. “Yes, we have properties lost, but it could have been a whole lot worse,” Commissioner Gollschewski expressed as he praised the firefighters for putting out the fire as fast as they could.
The arson attack follows shortly after a domestic violence activist has come under fire after mocking hardworking Australian firefighters who had been risking their lives battling bushfires for weeks.
In a press conference held by Greens Senator Larissa Waters, human rights advocate Sherele Moody made a bold claim suggesting that firefighters beat their own family members after “cataclysmic events” such as wildfires.
“After a cataclysmic event like this, domestic violence peaks. Women become extremely unsafe when, generally, the men return home from the fires and subject them to domestic violence,” she said as the senator was listening.
Soon after the conference aired, upset people lashed out at the speaker and at the Greens senator for mocking and falsely accusing firefighters who are risking their lives to save their communities.
“What happens when domestic violence perpetrators finish their work on the frontline of a major crisis? They abuse women in their lives – harder than they ever have. I am not saying every firefighter, emergency service responder or victim of this crisis is a perpetrator,” Moody went on to say in her Facebook post.
Following the massive backlash, the Greens quickly distanced their party from the activist claiming that they do “not support the statement made today by Sherele Moody that firefighters are responsible for an increase in domestic violence during times of disaster.”
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Replaced!