After an electrical failure ignited vegetation, a severe bushfire started just before noon on 7 February 2009 in Kilmore East. It killed 119 people, caused 232 casualties, destroyed 1242 homes and burned 125,383 ha. An electrical conductor owned and managed by Victorian energy company, SP AusNet, had failed and touched a cable stay supporting pole amongst vegetation. As outlined in Chapter 5 of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission Final Report Vol. 1: The Fires and Fire-Related Deaths (2010: 70, 73), the majority of the damage occurred in the first days but the fire was not contained till 16 February (for map of extent of damage, see p. 71).

Several severe and expansive fires had started on the extremely hot and windy Black Saturday, as the 7th of February 2009 has become known. They were amongst 400 individual Black Saturday fires responsible for 173 deaths and the destruction of 2133 houses amongst much more personal injury and property loss — the most damaging fires in Victoria’s history to date. The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission Final Report Summary (2010: 12) examined 15 of the fires and deemed that five were caused by ‘failure of electricity assets’. The Kilmore East fire had joined the Murrindindi–Marysville fire, together burning 168,542ha.

The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission Final Report Vol. 1 (2010: 75) found that the Kilmore East fire began with fatigue of strands near a helical termination in an approximately 43-year-old conductor, which had resulted in part from an incorrectly sealed helical termination not discovered in a line inspection a year prior to the fire (see photo in media section).

Friends of the Earth (FoE) Australia (Delbridge & Walker 2014: 24–26) have estimated the cost of the total Black Saturday fires at more than A$5.5bn. In the trial of the class action brought by Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, it was argued that vibrations on conductors during even light wind suggest that the company should have installed ‘a $10 plastic dampener on this line’ and ‘as a result you wouldn't have had this line come down on Black Saturday and cause such devastation.’ (Carlyon 2014) SP AusNet (the asset owner) and USG (the asset manager) counter-sued state emergency agencies, arguing that their failure to issue timely bushfire warnings had contributed to the losses. After the trial and prior to a decision being handed down, the plaintiffs and defendants agreed on a settlement of almost A$450mn — with the major contribution from SP AusNet — approved by the judge late in 2014.

FoE Australia (Delbridge and Walker 2014: 23) list a series of losses, including: around one-third of the water catchments for Melbourne (Victoria’s capital city) were burnt; CO2 emissions from fires on public land during January–February 2009 are estimated by the relevant state agency (Department of Sustainability and Environment) to amount to more than 8.5mn tonnes; the state agency VicForests estimated 10,000ha forest was burnt, including ecologically and commercially valuable Mountain Ash; amongst other efforts, approximately 14,740 volunteer-days were spent repairing often uninsured fencing; more than 1mn animals died, including iconic kangaroos and almost 12,000 stock; 220 tonnes of trout (in farms) were lost.

Fighting the fire were: the Country Fire Authority (938 staff and 92 appliances); the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (32 staff and 9 appliances); the Networked Emergency Organisation (107 staff and 11 aircraft) and numbers of residents and supporters.

The Victorian Supreme Court constructed a courtroom to hear the electronically run class action, which took more than 200 sitting days (16 months). Blackburn (2014) listed the extent of proceedings as including:

• 26 pre-trial directions hearings;

• 34 pre-trial applications;

• 60 court rulings made;

• evidence heard from 40 expert and 60 lay witnesses;

• 22,466 documents loaded on to the electronic courtbook;

• 10,364 documents tendered; and

• in excess of 20,300 pages of transcript.

Justice Osborn (Supreme Court of Victoria) formally approved the settlement deed agreed by parties to the Kilmore East Class Action (15 July 2014) on 23 December 2014. Without admitting liability, the parties paid approximately A$494.7mn: AusNet Services (A$378.6mn through their liability insurers); Victorian State Parties (because they neither conducted adequate cool burning of vegetation in the area nor provided sufficient warning of the impending fire — A$103.6mn, also through insurers); and the asset manger, Utility Services Corporation Ltd (A$12.5m). SP AusNet (2014) estimated their payout at ‘between 22% and 35% of the total losses suffered and costs incurred by those affected by the Kilmore East Bushfire’.

Given the disbursement was expected to take 18 months interest fees would increase the final pay out (i.e. minus legal and associated costs) to victims of over $430,000 (Whealing, The Age 2014).