In the end, with fires we can often only circle close to the truth. 'I don't want to give any reasons why he did this, I don't know. 'For Brendan - you could tick all of those reasons in a way. 'People light fires out of rage, or frustration, or boredom, or a sense of powerlessness, or a desire for revenge, or sometimes also as a desire to be seen as a hero - and people call in these fires to fight them.

'Misunderstood or not, it doesn't give you the right to deliberately light fires.'Ĭhloe Hooper says understanding the motives of people like Brendan Sokaluk could help stop more acts of arson - something that's especially pressing while we stare down the barrel of extreme weather events. We were lucky and didn't lose anyone, but so many lives and homes were lost in my area. 'I lost my childhood home in the Gippsland/Churchill Fires. Kristy from Hazelwood South wrote to Hack while hearing Chloe Hooper's interview. This point doesn't sit well with everyone. 'He wasn't really given the same supports that those autistic kids that are now diagnosed often receive. 'He had been severely bullied throughout his life and perhaps profoundly misunderstood by those in his community. Hooper's book brings in the expertise and knowledge of Victoria Police's Arson Squad, as well as Brendan Sokaluk's Legal Aid Lawyers, who give insight into the mind and life of an arsonist. I wanted to know why someone becomes an arsonist, so a few days after Brendan was arrested I went to the La Trobe Valley to look around.'īrendan Sokaluk is now the focus of Australian author Chloe Hooper's book The Arsonist: A Mind On Fire.

'I found it incomprehensible that you could basically start a firestorm deliberately. Not long after sitting on his roof to watch the inferno unfold, Brendan Sokaluk would become one of Victoria's worst killers, and be given an 18-year jail sentence for ten counts of arson causing death.Īustralian author Chloe Hooper grappled with the twisted logic of arson in 2009.

His decision would further inflame a tragedy that was already engulfing Victoria that day, known as Black Saturday: the fires Brendan Sokaluk deliberately lit would go on to kill ten people, contributing to the day's death toll of 173. On February 7 in 2009, a man called Brendan Sokaluk lit two fires in Victoria's La Trobe Valley.

Chloe hooper the arsonist