Teens blame each other for deadly Bendigo fire

The boys, aged 14 and 15, were arrested yesterday on 153 charges including arson causing the death of Kevin Michael Kane, 47, who died at his Long Gully home. The fire burnt 354 hectares of land and destroyed 61 houses and 125 sheds and outbuildings, causing damage of about $23 million.

The boys and any witnesses in their case cannot be named for legal reasons.

For Carol Kane, who lost her husband in the fire, the development was a relief but it delivered a shock at ''how young they are''.

Speaking from her mother's home in Bendigo yesterday, where she lives after losing her house in the fire, Mrs Kane said police advised her the night before that they were about to move in on two suspects.

''I don't know what we were expecting, but not that,'' she said of the offenders' ages. ''It is just such a waste. Michael is dead for no reason and two kids will have their lives ruined for being idiots.'' But she said after a year of waiting for arrests over the fire, ''it's a relief''.

''It is like one more chapter coming to a close. Not knowing who it was, was the real killer,'' she told The Age.

The arrests were made just five days short of Sunday's anniversary of the fierce fires that consumed 173 lives across the state. Mrs Kane and her husband Michael, who had a weakened leg, had schizophrenia and suffered seizures, had been married 24 years.

A detective from bushfire taskforce Phoenix told a court yesterday during a bail application by the 14-year-old that the boys regularly played together in bushland behind the All Stone Quarries in Eaglehawk.

He said a witness saw the pair at the quarry, heading deeper into bushland, about 3.15pm on Black Saturday, February 7 last year. The boys continued to Maiden Gully, he said, where they lit a fire in a dry creek bed near Bracewell Street at 4.20pm.

The detective said that in strong wind, the fire quickly spread through dry vegetation and travelled along the creek bed to surrounding land and properties. He said the boys then walked to a shopping centre where they spent time before returning to the 14-year-old's house to watch the developing fires.

They returned to the bushland near the quarry, but the heat and intensity of the fire forced them to retreat, he said.

The detective said a witness spoke to the boys near the front gates of the quarry about 6.45pm, and police also spoke to them at a nearby roadblock. He said police had interviewed the boys ''on several occasions'' since Black Saturday.

Telephone intercepts of conversations between the boys about the fire would form part of the evidence against them, he said. The detective said the 14-year-old had made partial admissions regarding the Maiden Gully fire, but the teenagers were blaming each other for lighting it. The court heard the boys also made 55 menacing phone calls to 000 operators between January and March last year, including on Black Saturday. They allegedly used obscene language and made sexual comments.

The court heard the 14-year-old had a developmental delay and low IQ while his 15-year-old friend, who appeared in another court to make a bail application, had an intellectual disability. Both boys were granted bail yesterday. Judge Paul Grant said the 14-year-old's age, developmental delay and lack of prior convictions justified his release on bail subject to conditions.

He ordered him to live at a nominated address and abide by a 7pm to 7am curfew unless in the company of a guardian. He must not contact his co-accused or any witnesses in his case. Judge Grant also ordered him not to attend any bushland unless he is with a guardian, or at all on a day of total fire ban. It is a further bail condition that he not have in his possession a lighter, matches, or anything else capable of starting a fire.

The boys are due to return to court for a committal mention on May 12.