The Sunday Telegraph
February 08, 2009 05:01pm
AT least 65 people are dead in the bushfires ripping through Victoria in a disaster which has eclipsed the state's Ash Wednesday devastation of two decades ago.
Authorities are continuing a grim search for more bodies as horrific eyewitness accounts emerge from devastated communities. It was estimated at least 640 homes had been lost - 550 of them in the Kinglake area.
Victoria Police authorities had confirmed 65 deaths. But the final tolld could rise much higher as authorities move further into the affected towns.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced emergency relief funding for the state, saying "Hell in all its fury had visited ... many good people lie dead".
Whole towns have been destroyed and thousands of people left homeless with record temperatures and fierce winds sparking devastating infernos.
The town of Marysville was reported to have been wiped out, but the Country Fire Authority (CFA) said many residents had made it to emergency shelter in a local park.
More destruction and power blackouts are possible, with up to a dozen fires still burning out of control. And it has been reported that arsonists are suspected of relighting some fires after fire crews had brought them under control.
The worst bushfire to strike Victoria was the 1983 Ash Wednesday disaster when 47 people were killed in the state.
Most of the bodies were discovered in towns northeast of Melbourne - eight at Kinglake, six at Kinglake West, five each at St Andrews and Flowerdale, four each at Callignee and Wandong, three each at Humevalem, Taggerty and Hazelwood, two at Hazeldene and one each in Arthurs Creek, Strathewan, Upper Callignee, Jeealang, Long Gully, Yea and Bendigo.
At least six bodies were found in the one car at Kinglake, with reports that others may have been trying to escape the fire in cars.
Police have not yet given the gender or ages of the victims, but one Kinglake resident said three members of the same family, believed to include a 14-year-old girl, a nine-year-old boy and an uncle, had died in the same house.
"It rained fire," another Kinglake resident told Sky News.
Strathewen resident Mary Avola said her husband of 43 years, Peter Avola, was among those killed. "He was behind me for a while and we tried to reach the oval but the gates were locked," she told Melbourne's Herald Sun.
"He just told me to go and that's the last time I saw him."
Firefighter Richard Hoyle described the scene as "a holocaust". "The road is riddled with burnt-out cars involved in multiple collisions and debris," he said.
Raylene Kincaide, of Narbethong, said her home had been destroyed and there was little left of the town. "Everyone we know has lost everything they had," she said on ABC radio.
More than 20 people have been admitted to Melbourne's Alfred Hospital with burns and three are in a critical condition. Seven of the injured have burns to more than 30 per cent of their bodies.
Anyone concerned about family or friends in fire areas should call the CFA on 1800 727 077.
Premier John Brumby has described the disaster as "the worst day in our history". He called the bushfires "a monster that couldn't be controlled".
The CFA said the communities of Kinglake, Kinglake West, Toolangi, Glenburn, Strathewen, Chum Creek, Dixons Creek, Castella,
Pheasant Creek, Doreen, Yan Yean, Woodstock, Mernda, Mittons Bridge, Hurstbridge, St Andrews, Panton Hill, Arthurs Creek, Smiths
Gully, Christmas Hills, Healesville, Yarra Glen, Coldstream, Tarrawarra, Steels Creek, had been and still may be directly impacted upon by the fire.
Australia Fire and Rain
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