00:00Ten months after a fire ripped through the southern grain belt, Wayne Kaplan's home is
00:06a pile of twisted steel.
00:10The house he and his late wife called home for 23 years was destroyed along with all
00:14their possessions.
00:15It hit me very hard that I basically felt like I'd lost my wife again.
00:21With no money to rebuild, this camper van has become the 73-year-old's long-term home.
00:26At the moment my future plans are on hold because I don't know if I could be living
00:33in this for the rest of my life.
00:36The fire tore through 11,000 hectares.
00:38Three homes were lost, sheds, farming equipment, livestock and fences also destroyed.
00:43Those affected say knowing the cause will help them rebuild, but almost a year later they're
00:47still waiting for answers.
00:48I've put in emails to claims management and I'm still getting back the reply saying it's
00:54still under investigation.
00:56An investigation by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services was unable to determine
01:00the cause.
01:02Residents who witnessed the blaze believe it was started by power lines.
01:05Just happened to see a puff of white smoke come up above the bush line and then sort of
01:12following that was a big puff of black smoke.
01:15I looked across to my right and I could see the fire which was directly below the power
01:21lines and it was just roaring.
01:25Owners of the farm telling investigators at a council meeting last month the same story.
01:29When we got to the power pole, the bottom wire was broken, the earth wire, and our assumption
01:34is the earth wire broke and then reticulated up and hit the power line causing sparks.
01:40There has been no official determination on what caused the fire.
01:43Experts say witness accounts are consistent with an electrical fire.
01:46The white smoke would be the electrical part of the transformer taken off and then the black
01:52smoke would be the other combustibles burning.
01:54If you get two wires you can spark up white smoke very easily.
01:58Western Power declined to comment citing an ongoing investigation.
02:02Information gleaned through Freedom of Information showed that investigation is being managed from
02:06deep within the department responsible for regulating and prosecuting network operators.
02:11Investigations are tightly controlled and highly confidential.
02:14Residents and council officers only recently informed of this at a wage and council meeting.
02:18If there is a personal interest involved and if there is a case to answer, I tell you now
02:25you won't hear from us.
02:26The first you will see is that a prosecution notice has been served.
02:30Residents told investigations leading to a prosecution can take up to two years to complete.
02:35Things that don't meet that threshold are often withheld.
02:38Representatives for the local government want any findings made public.
02:40You know any fire that starts, we want to know the cause so that we can try to either
02:47eliminate that cause in the future or take those to task that may have been responsible.
02:53An uncertain wait for displaced residents.
02:55angleicent or we want to know the causes of extra awareness of a
03:06criminal shooting or a jail at a time.
03:09This is a weekend.
03:10We want to know theć ĐŃma's office at a time that doesn't take place to account.
03:13They don't know the cause of the delay.
03:15They don't know the cause of their child.
03:16They don't know the cause of the problem.
03:18But then I do not know the problem.
03:19They don't know the cause of the situation that appears to be in the future or not.
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