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"There are a number of people who live adjacent to bush areas. They light a fire when it should not be lit, in the period of the year when fires are dangerous"
"No man will burn back unless he has to, because he runs the risk of burning his own property."
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Melbourne, Thursday 2 February 1939
 JAMES FRANCIS EZARDPresident of the Hardwood Millers’ Association, lives in Oakleigh, owner of a mill on the west bank of the Thomson River at Erica and seasoning mill at Oakleigh, engaged in the milling trade roughly 30 years, about 35 years since he first came into the business, he lost neither mill nor stacked timber in the fires, employs about 80 men.
Can you tell the Commission the first time this year that the fires began to threaten your mills?
It was early in the New Year, I would say somewhere around the 4th or 5th of January. I just could not say exactly but about a week after the New Year they started to look ugly. There were lesser fires; we had fires about Christmas time.
Taking these fires about Christmas time, in what direction would they be?
There were fires burning all through the Christmas holidays. I was there myself and there were fires burning on the eastern side of us, across the Thompson River practically the whole of the Christmas time.
[Mr Gowans] Of your own knowledge or from reports can you give the Commission any idea of the cause of the small fires which occurred before Christmas?
I was born and practically reared in Gippsland, and I think I know the whole bush fire trouble.
Naturally there is a number of people who live adjacent to bush areas, and probably right in bush areas as the clear country runs out to the foothills - they get in that country and when the scrub starts to grow up round them it is only natural for them to burn that scrub away - in fact they have to do so.
If they did not do so there would be much greater loss of life than we have had. That practice goes on year after year. These people have to burn the scrub to live. If they did not burn it they could not live as the scrub would grow up and they would be wiped out. Unfortunately there is always somebody who gets into one of these places who does not understand how to handle fires.
They light a fire when it should not be lit, that is in the period of the year when fires are dangerous. They will light fires at that time and these are the people, I would say who are the cause of the fires. Nothing is done wilfully, but I think it is more through ignorance than anything else.
They know other people are burning and they try to follow suit; but do so at a time when it is absolutely dangerous. I do not think anybody who has the knowledge lights a fire at a time when it would injure any person.
We did control the fire we were battling with, that is the fire that crossed the Thompson River. We not only saved the mills but we saved a young forest. We were anxious to save it because we knew it was of value. It was the property of the Forests Commission.
What we did was to burn back and save our No 2 mill on Friday. We burnt back between 3 and 4 o'clock.
Do you mean Friday the 13th?
Yes, we burnt back and saved the mill. When they reckoned the fire was within striking distance they lit the fire to burn back.
They told me that as soon as it was lit it was down the hill. It would not have been with the wind, because there was no wind there, yet that fire went like a flash towards the approaching fire. The up draught of the flames caused the wind to rush in from all quarters.
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