Black Saturday: Why is Wildfire Arson Common?
Bad People
BBC
4.4 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2020
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On February 7th 2009, Australia experienced its worst natural disaster. The weeks-long intense heat and gale force winds culminated in 400 separate wildfires which ended up taking 173 lives.
In the town of Churchill, detectives began an investigation which led them to believe that one man, driving a sky-blue sedan, may be responsible for 10 of those deaths.
After the arrest, detectives quickly realised that the man in their custody was not who they thought they'd be dealing with.
On this episode of Bad People, presenters Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen discuss wildfire arson, the dubious origin of the link between sex and fire and how we can tell when someone is malingering.
Archive credits: This episode includes audio from ABC, Inside The Mind of An Arsonist.
Presenters: Dr. Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen Producer: Simona Rata Music: Matt Chandler Series Editor: Rami Tzabar
Commissioning Producer: Hannah Rose Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins Commissioning Editor: Jason Phipps
Bad People is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the shocking moment English football has been dreading. |
| 0:05.0 | My name is Moses Swaybu and I used to be a professional footballer. |
| 0:08.5 | But then I got in deep with organised crime and became a match fixer operating in the English League. |
| 0:14.0 | A match fixing investigator has highlighted two matches he says appear to have |
| 0:19.0 | suspicious betting patterns. |
| 0:21.0 | How honesty are you going to be with me? |
| 0:22.3 | This is 100%. |
| 0:23.0 | Join me. Sports Strangers Crimes presents. Confessions of a Match mixer. |
| 0:27.0 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:35.0 | Okay, are we ready? |
| 0:37.0 | Three, two, one. One. which came to be known as Black Saturday. |
| 0:53.0 | 173 people died that day in what was later described as Australia's worst natural disaster. |
| 1:00.0 | But not all of the day's devastation can be blamed on forces beyond human control. |
| 1:05.0 | I'm Dr Julia Shaw a criminal psychologist. |
| 1:08.0 | And I'm Sophie Hagen, stand-up comedian. |
| 1:10.0 | And this is our podcast, Bad People. |
| 1:12.0 | Sometimes there will be some strong language, |
| 1:15.0 | and bear in mind that we will always be talking about crime on this series. |
| 1:19.0 | Liam said to me, |
| 1:21.0 | Don't you think it's strange that someone would come down a driveway in the |
| 1:26.0 | middle of a fire carrying a dog? |
... |
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