KEY POINTS
- Strike Force Tronto is the lead investigative body on suspicious or deliberately-lit bushfires
- 24 people have been charged over alleged deliberately-lit bushfires
- 53 people have had legal actions for allegedly failing to comply with a total fire ban
- 47 people have had legal actions for allegedly discarding a lighted cigarette or match on land.
Since Friday 8 November 2019, legal action – which ranges from cautions through to criminal charges – has been taken against 183 people – including 40 juveniles – for 205 bushfire-related offences.
Numerous bush and grass fires have impacted the state, claiming the lives of 18 people and destroying hundreds of millions of animals and livestock, thousands of homes, and more than 4.9 million hectares of land, so far this bushfire season.
Strike Force Tronto, comprised of detectives from the Financial Crimes Squad’s Arson Unit, has been working closely with individual police area commands and police districts to provide specialist assistance and advice to police on the ground.
As inquiries continue, police are appealing to the community to provide footage and/or images from phones, dashcam, or other devices, that show any of the fires in their infancy, even if only from a distance.
Images can be provided to local police stations or uploaded through Crime Stoppers online.
