Power line failure led to 121 fire deaths: police

Phoenix Taskforce chief Detective Superintendent Paul Hollowood told the Bushfires Royal Commission it was likely the fire started on a property on Saunders and Sunday Creek roads in Kilmore East, late in the morning of February 7.

"The origin of the fire reveals that it was likely caused from a high-tension power line which fell, earthing and sparking. The fire then travelled initially in a south-west direction," he said in a written witness statement to the commission.

Police investigations into the cause of that and other fires on Black Saturday are continuing. A lawyer representing 1100 people and businesses involved in class actions against power companies, Tim Tobin, SC, told the commission that 70 per cent of the 173 fatalities on Black Saturday or 121 deaths were caused by the failure of electricity assets.

Mr Tobin aired the figure while cross-examining a senior officer from the CFA, Steve Warrington. He asked Mr Warrington what the CFA had done to guard against power asset failures, saying that electricity assets had caused fatal fires at other times in Victoria, including in 1969, 1977 and 1983.

"Was there anything done within the system, in the planning before the 7th of February, to guard against the consequences of electricity assets, which have proved to be the major cause of death in fires over the last 40 years?" he asked.

In response to Mr Tobin's questioning, a lawyer representing power company SP AusNet, Bernard Quinn, said "no evidential foundation" had been put to the commission regarding Mr Tobin's comments. A spokesperson for SP AusNet later hit back at Mr Tobin, telling The Age: "This is an unsubstantiated claim and pure speculation given the police investigations and the royal commission are yet to conclude inquiries into the causes of any of the fires, and we regret Mr Tobin endeavouring to pre-empt the findings of these inquiries."

Mr Warrington said he had no specific knowledge of the 70 per cent figure used by Mr Tobin. But he said he was aware power lines could cause fires. "We're obviously aware that high-wind events and particularly with a history of expansion and contraction of power lines, yes, I'm aware of the broad history of the power industry being involved in fire starts," he said.

Mr Warrington, a deputy chief officer of the CFA, said he had worked with the power industry to help produce a code of practice covering "privately owned" power lines. "We've got partnerships with whoever we can to mitigate risks," he said.

In other evidence yesterday:

- Mr Warrington said he no longer had the mobile phone that he used on the day to inform people via SMS messages about the fires as he worked in the emergency centre. Under questioning about the mobile phone by Jack Rush, QC, senior counsel assisting the commission, Mr Warrington said it had stopped working. "The phone, I think it had water in it or something and it didn't work. It wasn't a legitimate thing to hide any messages. In fact we made some effort to try and obtain those messages," he said.

- Commissioner Ron McLeod suggested there was duplication of CFA roles inside a key emergency centre on Black Saturday and that an outsider would have a "sense of confusion" about it.

- A closed session was held to examine the deaths of seven people in shelters on private property.

Meanwhile, a scientific assessment has found that fuel reduction burning did not and could not offer significant protection from the catastrophic conditions of Black Saturday.

Commissioned by three environmental groups, the analysis by consultant Chris Taylor found there was less than 5 per cent probability that a fire of the intensity that ran through the Kinglake Ranges would have been slowed by a more concentrated prescribed burning regime. -- With ADAM MORTON