DEEP in the grasslands of Victoria's Western District, near the
town of Coleraine, an ageing piece of tie-wire snapped at
lunchtime on Black Saturday.  The wire was holding up a power
line, which fell, brushing through the leaves of a nearby tree.
In and out of the branches it blew, arcing and sparking. Then,
in 40-degree temperatures, the tree caught fire.  About the same
time, 105 kilometres away near Horsham, the 47-year-old mounting
on top of a pine power pole worked its way loose. It was already
weakened - one of the three bolts holding it had fallen out some
time earlier. In the wind, the other two bolts popped out and
the mount fell off. The power line scraped down the side of the
pole, sparking, and hit the ground. In the 0.3 seconds it took
for the fuse to cut power supply to the line, another fire had
begun.  Electricity distributor Powercor owned both the
Coleraine and Horsham lines and, in the Bushfires Royal
Commission, accepted these explanations of how the fires
started. It has expressed doubts