A fire truck is dwarfed by flames from a bushfire about 125 kilometres west of Melbourne on Saturday. (Associated Press)Story from the 'BBC' here.
"In Victoria, witnesses described seeing trees exploding and skies raining ash on Saturday as temperatures of up 47 C combined with blasting winds to create furnace-like conditions.
Police said they were hampered from reaching burned-out areas to confirm details of deaths and property loss.
But Victoria Police Commissioner Christine Nixon confirmed deaths at a dozen sites. At least 18 people were hospitalized with burns and eight were in critical condition, hospital officials said.
Police said they believed groups of bodies had been found in cars in at least two places — suggesting families or groups of friends were engulfed in flames as they tried to flee.
In total, 49 deaths were confirmed by Sunday evening, said police spokeswoman Leanne Quentin, and officials were still working their way into burned-out regions, meaning the toll could rise.
The fires were so massive they were visible from space Saturday. NASA released satellite photographs showing a white cloud of smoke across southeastern Australia.
Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said police suspected some of the fires were set deliberately. He predicted it would take days to get all the blazes under control.
Victoria Country Fire Authority official Stuart Ord told Sky News about 1,190 square kilometres had been burned by early Sunday.
Marysville, a former gold rush town that was home to about 800 people, was almost completely wiped out, witnesses said. Video taken from the air showed street after street of burned-out homes in the town, about 130 kilometers north of Melbourne.
"Marysville is no more," Senior Const. Brian Cross told The Associated Press as he manned a checkpoint Sunday in nearby Healesville on a road leading into the town.
The 30 or so town residents who had not fled before Saturday's fire huddled on a sports field overnight to escape the flames and were brought out Sunday, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
No deaths were reported in Marysville, but police sealed off the town because they feared bodies would be found there.
Another of the hardest-hit districts was Kinglake, a normally sleepy region of farms and weekend-getaway spots, where at least a dozen people were reported killed. It was there that six bodies were found in one car.
Victoria Country Fire Service spokesman Hayden Lane said 640 houses had been confirmed destroyed — 550 in the Kinglake district — and that tally was expected to rise.
Residents reported the fire tearing through the region at high speed, burning everything before it.
Temperatures in the area dropped to around 25 C on Sunday, but along with cooler conditions came wind changes that officials said could push fires in unpredictable directions.
Dozens of fires were also burning in New South Wales state, where temperatures remained high for the third consecutive day. Properties were not under immediate threat.
Police said they detained and questioned a man in connection with a blaze but released him without charge.
Wildfires are common during the Australian summer. Government research shows that about half of the roughly 60,000 fires each year are deliberately lit or suspicious. Lightning and people using machinery near dry brush are other causes.
Australia's deadliest fires were in 1983, when blazes killed 75 people and razed more than 3,000 homes in Victoria and South Australia."
abridged from here.
"In Victoria, witnesses described seeing trees exploding and skies raining ash on Saturday as temperatures of up 47 C combined with blasting winds to create furnace-like conditions.
Police said they were hampered from reaching burned-out areas to confirm details of deaths and property loss.
But Victoria Police Commissioner Christine Nixon confirmed deaths at a dozen sites. At least 18 people were hospitalized with burns and eight were in critical condition, hospital officials said.
Police said they believed groups of bodies had been found in cars in at least two places — suggesting families or groups of friends were engulfed in flames as they tried to flee.
In total, 49 deaths were confirmed by Sunday evening, said police spokeswoman Leanne Quentin, and officials were still working their way into burned-out regions, meaning the toll could rise.
The fires were so massive they were visible from space Saturday. NASA released satellite photographs showing a white cloud of smoke across southeastern Australia.
Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said police suspected some of the fires were set deliberately. He predicted it would take days to get all the blazes under control.
Victoria Country Fire Authority official Stuart Ord told Sky News about 1,190 square kilometres had been burned by early Sunday.
Marysville, a former gold rush town that was home to about 800 people, was almost completely wiped out, witnesses said. Video taken from the air showed street after street of burned-out homes in the town, about 130 kilometers north of Melbourne.
"Marysville is no more," Senior Const. Brian Cross told The Associated Press as he manned a checkpoint Sunday in nearby Healesville on a road leading into the town.
The 30 or so town residents who had not fled before Saturday's fire huddled on a sports field overnight to escape the flames and were brought out Sunday, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
No deaths were reported in Marysville, but police sealed off the town because they feared bodies would be found there.
Another of the hardest-hit districts was Kinglake, a normally sleepy region of farms and weekend-getaway spots, where at least a dozen people were reported killed. It was there that six bodies were found in one car.
Victoria Country Fire Service spokesman Hayden Lane said 640 houses had been confirmed destroyed — 550 in the Kinglake district — and that tally was expected to rise.
Residents reported the fire tearing through the region at high speed, burning everything before it.
Temperatures in the area dropped to around 25 C on Sunday, but along with cooler conditions came wind changes that officials said could push fires in unpredictable directions.
Dozens of fires were also burning in New South Wales state, where temperatures remained high for the third consecutive day. Properties were not under immediate threat.
Police said they detained and questioned a man in connection with a blaze but released him without charge.
Wildfires are common during the Australian summer. Government research shows that about half of the roughly 60,000 fires each year are deliberately lit or suspicious. Lightning and people using machinery near dry brush are other causes.
Australia's deadliest fires were in 1983, when blazes killed 75 people and razed more than 3,000 homes in Victoria and South Australia."
abridged from here.
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