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Sun Feb 8, 12:50 PM ET

84 killed in deadliest-ever Australian wildfires

HEALESVILLE, Australia – Entire towns have been seared off the map by wildfires raging through southeastern Australia, burning people in their homes and cars and raising the death toll to 84 on Sunday in the deadliest blaze in the country's history.

Searing temperatures and wind blasts created a firestorm that swept across a swath of the country's Victoria state, where at least 700 homes were destroyed and all of the victims died. More victims were expected to be found, officials said.

"Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said. "It's an appalling tragedy for the nation."

                          

Sun Feb 8, 8:17 AM ET

The town of Marysville and several hamlets in the Kinglake district, both about 50 miles (100 kilometers) north of Melbourne, were utterly devastated.

At Marysville, a winter tourism town that was home to about 800 people, up to 90 percent of buildings were in ruins, witnesses said. Police said two people died there.

"Marysville is no more," Senior Constable Brian Cross told the AP as he manned a checkpoint Sunday on a road leading into the town.

At least 18 of the deaths were from the Kinglake area, where residents said the fire hit with barely any notice.

Mandy Darkin said she was working at a restaurant "like nothing was going on" until they were suddenly told to go home.

"I looked outside the window and said: 'Whoa, we are out of here, this is going to be bad,'" Darkin said. "I could see it coming. I just remember the blackness and you could hear it, it sounded like a train."

Only five houses were left standing out of about 40 in one neighborhood that an Associated Press news crew flew over. Street after street was lined by smoldering wrecks of homes, roofs collapsed inward, iron roof sheets twisted from the heat. The burned-out hulks of cars dotted roads. A church was smoldering, only one wall with a giant cross etched in it remained standing.

Here and there, fire crews filled their trucks from ponds and sprayed down spot fires. There were no other signs of life.

                             

Sun Feb 8, 8:17 AM ET

Rudd, on a tour of the fire zone, paused to comfort a man who wept on his shoulder, telling him, "You're still here, mate."

Police said they were hampered from reaching burned-out areas to confirm details of deaths and property loss. At least 80 people were hospitalized with burns.

On Sunday temperatures in the area dropped to about 77 F (25 C) but along with cooler conditions came wind changes that officials said could push fires in unpredictable directions.

Thousands of exhausted volunteer firefighters were battling about 30 uncontrolled fires Sunday night in Victoria, officials said, though conditions had eased considerably. It would be days before they were brought under control, even if temperatures stayed down, they said.

Residents were repeatedly advised on radio and television announcements to initiate their so-called "fire plan" — whether it be staying in their homes to battle the flames or to evacuate before the roads became too dangerous. But some of the deaths were people who were apparently caught by the fire as they fled in their cars or killed when charred tree limbs fell on their vehicles.

Rudd announced immediate emergency aid of 10 million Australian dollars ($7 million), and government officials said the army would be deployed to help fight the fires and clean up the debris.

Australia's previous worst fires were in 1983, when blazes killed 75 people and razed more than 3,000 homes in Victoria and South Australia state during "Ash Wednesday." Seventy-one died and 650 buildings were destroyed in 1939's "Black Friday" fires.

Wildfires are common during the Australian summer. Government research shows 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.

Victoria police Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said police suspected some of the fires were set deliberately.

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.







Article: HERE

                

Sun Feb 8, 1:54 PM ET

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A helicopter drops water on a bushfire on the outskirts of Labertouche, 90km (56 miles) east of Melbourne, February 7, 2009. Aircraft dropped water bombs on raging Australian bush fires and homes went up in flames on Saturday as a once-in-a-century heatwave sent temperatures in Melbourne to their highest on record. Australian bush fires killed 14 people in the southern state of Victoria on Saturday, police and local media said.

(Mick Tsikas/Reuters)

                  

Sun Feb 8, 10:45 AM ET

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A firefighter watches a helicopter water bomb a bushfire approaching the town of Peats Ridge, north of Sydney. Twenty-six fires were still burning in Victoria, with another 53 blazing throughout neighbouring New South Wales.

(AFP/Torsten Blackwood)






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