Inside the mind of an arsonist: What motivates someone to start bushfires? | Australian Story 

only 1% of arsonists are actually detected? that is terrifying as a statistic.

They need to be charged with pre-meditated murder or attempted murder if nobody perishes. There need to be very strong deterrents and a zero tolerance for what is one of the most destructive and barbaric crimes.

Hmmmmm i get the feeling he knew right from wrong, regardless of his mental capacity.

As a teenager I went to Kinglake to stay with a friends family for the weekend and i'll never forget the impact this had on the community, even 10 years after the event. It was like time had stoped, there were still burnt out cars and collapsed structures. Much of the conversation often turned to what everyone had lost and never recovered. Just devastating.

The last guy to speak hit the nail firmly on the head.

I have no doubt that he had a difficult early life, trouble at school. Probably a lot of emotion pent up. However. He lit that fire. And i think he enjoyed the fire and has zero remorse.

This is nuts. He should have gotten a heavier sentence, not only did people die in a horrific manner but the effects on environment and the livelihoods of everyone in the area is absolutely devastating

I feel so so sorry for all the people and animals that were lost in this terrible fire. So heartbreaking 😭

Temperatures and droughts are going up...mental health problems among young men is going up...not good signs !!

i wonder if these people who defend him would feel the same to someone killing their family members by arson.

There is an African tribal saying that says the child who is not treated well in the village, when grown up, will burn the village to the ground.

I lived in Churchill on this day, still one of the most terrifying days of my life

"he was covered in feces, sometimes he was covered in spit" - what a wonderful community, especially their parenting skills! Quite unsurprising, though fascinating, outcome. A lot of bullied in such manner would be more than happy to burn their peers together with parents, who raised them, down, someday. You rip what you sow.

Some people just want to see the world burn.

Many arsonists work within the Rural Fire Brigade and are usually the first on the scene of a fire and they try to be the hero. It seems to be that they are addicted to feeling of power they get from first lighting the fires and than being first on scene. I know an arsonists who worked with the RFA and has set a few areas on fire, including close to the place of work which my brother was also working at the time. He set the bush on fire and than tried to leave the scene which is unheard of with RFA members in this situation. He was eventually found out, arrested and found guilty for lighting more than 1 fire. He is still currently in jail.

"he was covered in feces, sometimes he was covered in spit, " often when his mother picked him up from the school bus.. it sounds like with the bullying and having a lower IQ he probably emotionally shut down and didn't care about others as one should. Schools really need to prevent bullying as the outcome is disturbed people. I was severely bullied in school myself and though I wouldnt do something like this it has made a lasting impact on me to the point that sometimes I feel like I hate humanity esp when someone is nasty.. and I'm almost 50 now. The affects of severe bullying do last, I have PTSD from bullying. I feel sorry for this arsonist that he was left so messed up, no-one who has not been through long term severe bullying as a child has no idea what this is like.

The latter part of this film PREDICTED what would happen here in 2019, yet NO ONE DID ANYTHING. They just stood by and let it happen.

I lost my home from this 'person' and no trying to paint him in a different light can ever make me forgive him. And for his little time he will be spending in prison is just pathetic. When my Dad was interviewed by news crews after Black Saturday he said he thinks he (Sokaluk) should be with the police and getting the bodies of those he killed.

Australian Story is so good, well done ABC

Can't read or write, is disabled and can still drive a vehicle and lay bets at the TAB.... but can't distinguish between right and wrong.

I lost my house to a bushfire in February 2021 and if I ever catch an arsonist I will do very unpleasant things to that person.

we should have the death penalty brought back NO MORE SOFT TOUCH

Trying to stomach what they have done to the animal population recently ... I can’t even wrap my mind around one person doing that much damage but 24 are now suspects! These people shouldn’t be allowed to waste anymore oxygen

this is still very tragic to watch... my condolences go out to everybody who was affected in this horrible time

Around 15:00 he’s not even a consistent actor, let alone a good one. One second, coherent, complex sentences, then next second “Der, I dunno. Der, I’m dumb”

Even children know lighting fires is wrong. They know more about fairness and morality than many adults do - it's instinctual. Most people with autistic disorders are not violent and destructive.

With the current fires happening in in au, this is too real

Shirley is a saint. I am not sure I would be able to forgive if I were in her position

People with disabilities commit all sorts of offences ( only a small percentage) but this doesn't excuse the damage done in this case. He should have got life because when he gets out, he will continue to be a risk to any community he lives in. All these people making up fake narratives of the story need to quit. The situations simple: he likes to start fires and fits the diagnosis as an arsonist.

Living in SA I am really worried about this year. Hopefully no deliberately lit fires this summer or it will be the end!!

This is a clear case what bullies can do to a person just like those that kill with guns..STOP BULLIES.

Many, many individuals function perfectly well whilst having a diagnosis of autism or aspergers. The fact that we refer to 'being on the spectrum' indicates that both conditions have varying levels of severity. It's not mentioned here just how severe Sokaluk's autism is, but it does seem he isn't so 'far gone' that he can't understand what he did and what the consequences are. Also, one of the contributors to this documentary stated that Sokaluk knew how to play the system in order to receive all the disability benefits. Surely, then, he isn't so far along the autism spectrum that he's 'blissfully unaware'. If he knew how to play the system then, in my opinion, he knew right from wrong. I would have thought that the culture in Australia is to ensure that everyone knows about fire safety, particularly during 'dry season' in the same way that Australians are taught from an early age about protection from the damaging UV rays of the sun. Aren't both ingrained in the Australian psyche?!

During the 2013 Tasman peninsula fires my friends and I were stuck in Highcroft where we live because obviously the roads were reserved for the firefighters. We had lightning in our street and the fire just missed Highcroft. I was living alone and there was no running water so I went to my friends house with my fur baby and my emergency bag on my back! It was an experience that I really don't want to repeat! Thanks firefighters for your help!

Did any of his school peers ever reconsider their school yard behavior? As the last interviewee says: "Why" Why indeed is an important question. There is a typical profile of intense school yard bullying leading to antisocial behaviour here. Sure "no excuse" is the response, however can anyone be sure that intense schoolyard abuse wouldn't have caused the same result in themselves? School yard abuse was traumatic for me. I don't know if a little more abuse would have produced a similar outcome in me. This is possibly a bad case of CPTSD and a tragic outcome for all. "Why" is very important.

Black Saturday is etched in my mind., I saw the fire front reach the valley near my parent's homestead I was defending for them. I had time to let the horses out from the nearby farm before leaving myself. I kept to the back roads because I knew cars on the highway would be trapped by fires, The fire missed my family home that sadly was looted before I had time to return with my parents. I cannot fathom the mind of an arsonist let alone the mind of someone who loots.

The three factors for a fire to occur, heat, combustible material and oxygen. In this story the combustion material was the human bodies. The disco fire in Gothenburg (also called Backabranden) was a fire that occurred the night between Thursday the 29th and Friday the 30th of October 1998. 63 people died and 214 were injured. The fire broke out in a room at Backaplan on Hisingen in Gothenburg, where a disco had been arranged. Approximately 375 young people aged 12-25 were in the room, which was approved for 150 people according to current regulations. Four young people were convicted in the district court in 2000 for setting the fire. As a reason for doing so, they stated that one of them had been denied free admission to the party and therefore wanted revenge.

A bullied person lashing back at society. Hmm.. where have we heard that before.

wow what a hero keeping aussies criminal history alive so proud to be from the lucky country

He was devious and worked at playing dumb to obstruct the investigation. He showed no remorse at all. He should have been taken at his word and put into a psychiatric unit for life.

Just wondering if he started any of the fires That are burning now They say a lot have been started by a person

So at the end of it all, I didnt really understand why 40% of bushfires are intenzional.. I don't think he"s a "typical" case..

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing

Just strip them down and let the outback have them.

All this, the big fire, and now Corona virus. Big love to the good Aussie people from Tucson, Arizona, USA. Crikey, I need to go watch something lovely now...

The courts in this country are so out of touch it is really disturbing.

The video is titled "Inside the mind of an arsonist: What motivates someone to start bushfires?" but the video doesn't tackle that question at all. Very cursory comments at the end about how "we need to understand why" and a couple of hesitant guesses as to "Maybe he was motivated by..."

28:11 thats the catch 22, you dont know theres a problem until they have already lit the match

So he'll be out in time for all the forest to regrow and start another fire. Great

Please enable automatic closed captions!

The people standing there filming this fire as it rapidly approaches them are a different breed. I would be way too scared to do anything but run.

i agree with pete townsend

Very sad story😢. 💔 for all those affected.

I understand none of his tormentors from childhood expressed much regret?

I'm wondering how often we have to see this pattern of severe bullying and a large event of violence later, before we conclude that bullying should be a tiny bit more illegal than, say, stealing a chewing gum? Am I missing something, or have I seen this pattern before, like in a school shooting or so?

Why are re-uploading content? But to repeat the comment I made about 12 hours ago..... Stop blaming 'being bullied' for this man's deadly actions. Most kids are bullied, they don't turn out to be arsonists.

Pretty ironic this is being recommended now despite the fact that 183 or something arsonist have been arrested since November of last year in AUS.

I don't think he intended to kill anyone. But he did.

The comment section is as always full of people incredibly well versed in psychiatry, law, autism, criminal investigation, interrogation techniques... the list goes on.

There was a time when arsonist were shot.....when found....on the spot....no mercy. Which is WRONG - so very wrong............they should be burnt at the stake.

This guy is a real life Kaiser Soze.

"he will be out in 4 years" its been 4 years since this video was released

A guy I went to school with (12 years old) asked friends of mine if they wanted to watch him start a fire. My friends begged him not to start the fire but he did anyway. He then quickly tried to put the fire out but a wind whipped up, resulting in the fire growing so fast that they all had to hightail it out of the area. The good news is the fire brigade turned up and quickly put the fire out. Point is the stupid boy really believed he could control the fire and completely freaked out when he couldn't contain it. There needs to be more education programs in schools about the danger of playing with fire (this is even more applicable for individuals like Brendan) who was assessed by an expert as having Autism (ASD) and an intellectual disability that went undetected for years. Most children with Autism are not deliberately malicious instead they are totally naive and somewhat innocent. Children with Autism need special intervention to teach them action/consequence because what is common sense to a normal mentally stable child is not necessarily the case for a child suffering from ASD. In fact Brendan's peers, tortured him psychologically and ostracized him throughout his childhood, while the broader community failed to intervene or offer assistance in the form of medical, psychological, social or educational support, which made all of their actions / responses morally and professionally inept. To those that are so ignorant as to say lock people like him away and throw away the key because they will never get any better? Seriously !!! "You know. Grab your torch and pitchforks. ~ Shrek" . In the 1950s it was estimated that 1 in 25,000 children were diagnosed with Autism. Today the stats are closer to 1 in 27. Maybe we should be focusing on the trigger for the new Autism epidemic? Finally, my heart goes out to all individuals that were caught up in this horrific tragedy

"The only way we can stop the Brendans of this world from continuing to light is fires bring them in for intervention and treatment." Agreed... but that intervention and treatment has to begin before age six, or it won't mean a damned thing. PARENTS are the first line of defense, and it's a vanishingly rare parent who's willing to rat out their own 4yo child, let alone ensure that 4yo child gets every bit of the help (s)he needs for the next 10-15 years.

I'm willing to be there are a bunch of Churchillians that are gonna be waiting for Sokaluk on the courthouse lawn if he is ever released. Rightly so.

"She and Bill grabbed their dogs and very little else" YES! Animals First Always!

He’ll have a tougher life outside then inside!

That's the tinder box of a country we live in. All it takes is one lit piece of paper out a car window on a windy day to wreak havoc and destroy lives.

And sadly... look where we are now.. 5.1.2020.

The Arsonist, by Chloe Hooper is worth a listen

Don't name them or give them amy facetime, they shouldn't get any recognition for what they do.

I just hope he Is locked up forever, Brendan I just can't even speak his name, I still with the Churchill Fires have extreme PTSD 💔

I use to have issues setting fires when I was a teenager many years ago and then I got mental health treatment and fire never excited me again. Fire is not a toy it was meant for it purposes of candles cigarettes camp fires buts that’s it. It shouldn’t be used to damage peoples homes or anything that’s foul and a crime and people who does that should be punished to the highest extent of the law there is now and days.

World please say a prayer for Australia right now .... worst fire conditions we have ever seen !! :(

Don’t you mean inside the mind of Norman Price

6:24 look at this fire! This is like 10-15 meters per second!

if you want to pay with fire so much put it on yourself

You don't set the fire...the fire sets you.

Open the comment section on all of the ABC videos we pay you,freedom of speech.

Tragic in every regard...

With the whole Australia being on fire this hits way to hard This predicted it

You're not going to be able to stop lone wolves like this, sane or otherwise. Broken men are a larger problem and while eliminating what causes them is a priority, you have to assume that arsons will simply commit arson, without fail. If so, you need to make the landscape wildfire resistant. That means culling Eucalyptus trees that are touching crowns (while a native, they also pose the dual threat of sucking up all the water from the neighboring plants, so the neighbors shouldn't even have crowns that touch it), creating permanent fire lines via berms or swales on contour, utilizing grazing animals (sadly the herd animals you would want are not endemic), creating drought-resistant strands of forests, feeding the landscape with adequate water management in the form of sequestered water and feeding tributaries all fed from springs or the natural watershed, raising the water table through restorative agriculture to create a more moist microclimate (I understand you have the highest UV radiation levels on the planet but conventional wisdom can only help), conducting more lumber reclamation via dead stands of fuel and downed salvageable logs, burning any additional brush in piles, and as a last resort, prescribed burns of entire areas to compartmentalize the vulnerable zones thus that the fire cannot spread from cell to cell (this is the same method we use in fire suppression in modern building code). All of these preventative measures are things done BEFORE a fire even occurs, so they're simply passive protection once properly implemented, and not a finger needs to be lifted during the actual crisis itself to yield these results.

I'm usually against the death penalty but I think it should be brought back in cases of wildfire arson where people get killed. It's mass murder produces untold environmental destruction and ruins lives.

What should they call the Current 2019/2020 mega blaze bushfires in Australia most of which are in NSW Black Saturday and this 2019/2020 fire season shows that the government needs invest better into firefighters and resources for them but what do I know im only a teenager

We had some in BC Canada fires no jail it seems for them

I’d not forgive him, and he should be in prison for life.

My God. Of all the sad facts surrounding these hellish infernos, thinking some were started on purpose is too much to bear :((

Lol everybody saying its not His fault hes 5 years old in his head , yet he drives and smokes cigaret . Lol...

When you realise the fires happening right now are actually worse, hope nothing happens too me during this fire season :(

There should be a way to stop or identify these people!

There are real monsters in this world.

Excuses Excuses

I agree and understand that Brendan got a prison sentence...but what (if any) HELP is he getting? That's the real problem, if he isn't getting any.

I know in America if he started a fire and it was federal land and death happened because of an arsonist he would most likely get the death penalty

if you treat a human that way you get what you put out ....seems to be expected

I am curious as to the flash of light in the top left hand corner at 5:34 if anyone has any ideas?

👨‍💻SCAPEGOAT - ?🔥 Kinglake vic fires Totally wiped it off the map - i think of the horses animals on alot properties that must've perished Remember Brian Naylor & wife CH 9 News reader he died there stayed trying to hose the fire coming to his country house 🔥🔥💨 but overwhelmed by it all - total burnt out in his retirement days Just leave if u hear a whisper get out head the op direction away from a fire🔥

“Very good councillor...... there was no Brendan”

Every time i watch a video on Australian criminals it is always revealed that the punishments handed down by the Australian justice system are woefully inadequate.

Understanding isn't defending its a premptive solution rather than post. Our Children.

Why interview his defence Barrister. Don't you think she is slightly bias? sorta like interviewing the prosecution and being surprised they think he's guilty. Like how the guy can't speak about fires without mentioning climate change, even though he is not a climatologist or a fire fighter and that isn't why we are watching him speak he feels the need to remind us.