Hundreds of Tasmanians impacted by a devastating bushfire in January 2013 have launched legal action against two people they believe caused the blaze.
The fortnight-long wildfire at Dunalley in the state’s southeast destroyed 193 homes and 186 other properties including the town’s school and police station.
In documents lodged with the Supreme Court of Hobart, it is alleged a man and woman were negligent in lighting or failing to properly put out a campfire which later flared and burned through 25,000 hectares of land.
A total of 445 people have put their names to the legal action.
They claim a campfire was lit on December 28, 2012 in a tree stump at a property in Forcett.
Tammy Holmes, second from left, and her grandchildren, two-year-old Charlotte Walker, left, four-year-old Esther Walker, third from left, nine-year-old Liam Walker, eleven-year-old Matilda, second from right, and six-year-old Caleb Walker, right, take refuge under a jetty as a wildfire rages near-by in the Tasmanian town of Dunalley during the 2103 wildfires
It is alleged dirt was kicked onto the stump and two half-buckets of water poured on the fire, with the belief it had been extinguished.
The woman on January 1 saw steam coming from stump after rain but did not take any steps to investigate, it is also claimed.
Two days later, in hot, dry and windy weather and when the fire danger was very high to severe, the smouldering fire spread to grass and then into bushland.
The class action claims the man and woman ought to have known when they lit the campfire in December there was a risk of fire spreading over a wide area.
A 2013 inquiry into the Dunalley bushfire and other blazes in the area estimated their overall financial cost was about $100 million.
The case will reportedly come before the Supreme Court in March.
The fire’s devastation was captured on camera by a British-born grandfather who led his family into the sea as wildfires raged around them, destroying their home.
Tammy and Tim Holmes led their five grandchildren Charlotte, two, Esther, four, Caleb, six, Liam, nine, and Matilda, 11, into the sea as their only hope while the fires quickly spread.
The ordeal, near the village of Dunalley in Tasmania, was photographed by 62-year-old Tim Holmes who moved to Australia from Wales
The ordeal, near the village of Dunalley in Tasmania, was photographed by 62-year-old Mr Holmes, who moved to Australia from Wales.
‘We saw tornadoes of fire just coming across towards us and the next thing we knew everything was on fire, everywhere, all around us,’ Mr Holmes said.
‘By that time I had sent Tammy with the children to go down to the jetty because there was no escape, we couldn’t get off.’
The children’s mother, Bonnie Walker, who had left them in the care of her parents on Monday, feared they had been killed.
Mrs Walker told how she drove to the service in Hobart, Tasmania, as fire ravaged the land either side of her and just made it through before the flames crossed the road and cut her off from her family.
Some 1,000 people were rescued by boat from the east coast after fires cut off roads, but police say they hold ‘grave fears’ for a number of residents who stayed to defend their homes but have not been heard from.