Small spot fires still burn on January 05, 2020 between Orbost and Cann River along the Princes Highway, Australia. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
NEW SOUTH WALES, Australia — The New South Wales Police Force has taken legal action against more than 180 people for bushfire-related offenses since late last year. That number includes 24 people who deliberately lit bushfires.
Nationwide, at least 25 people have been killed and 2,000 homes destroyed by the blazes, which have so far scorched an area twice the size of the U.S. state of Maryland, the Associated Press reports.
Wildfires are common during the southern hemisphere summer, and Australians generally take a pragmatic view of them. But this year’s fires arrived unusually early, fed by drought and the country’s hottest and driest year on record.
Rain and cooler temperatures on Monday were bringing some relief to communities battling the fires. But the rain was also making it challenging for fire crews to complete strategic burns as they tried to prepare for higher temperatures that have been forecast for later in the week.
Exposing the Big Game 
I really do hope that whoever these idiots are, they are made to go on the front lines of the clean up. I’m so sick of human idiotic behavior, and just too lenient responses.
Here’s a list of all the bushfires Australia has had since the 1800s – it’s become a deadly mix of regular, cyclical events, exacerbated by climate change, and deliberate human setting of fires, just like in our country:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Australian_bushfire_seasons