The death toll in a massive Australian bush fire rose to 84 on Sunday, making it the deadliest bush fire in Australian history, police said.
The fire storm tore through several towns north of Melbourne on Saturday night, killing people in their cars as they tried to flee or as they huddled in their homes, with hundreds of houses destroyed. Thousands of firefighters were still battling scores of fires in Victoria and New South Wales state on Sunday night.
The previous worst bush-fire tragedy was in 1983 when 75 people were killed in the ”Ash Wednesday” fires.
The government put the army on standby and set up emergency relief funds, but also faced some pressure from Greens lawmakers who have been urging it to stiffen its climate-change policies to reduce the risk of more such summer disasters.
Thousands of firefighters battled for a second straight day on Sunday to contain the blazes, which witnesses said reached four storeys high, raced across the land like speeding trains and spewed hot embers as far as the horizon.
”It went through like a bullet,” Darren Webb-Johnson, a resident of the small rural town of Kinglake, told Sky TV.
”The service station went, the take-away store across the road went, cylinders [exploded] left, right and centre, and 80% of the town burnt down to the ground.”
Many of those confirmed dead were trapped in cars trying to flee one of the infernos. State broadcaster ABC showed pictures of a small town, Marysville, razed to the ground.
”Hell and its fury have visited the good people of Victoria,” said Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, visiting the burnt-out region. ”The nation grieves with Victoria.”
Firefighters say 640 homes have been destroyed in the fires across Victoria State so far this weekend, the vast majority in the worst-affected areas north of Melbourne.
Wildfires are a natural annual event in Australia, but this year a combination of scorching weather, drought and tinder-dry bush has created prime conditions for blazes to take hold — and also raised pressure on the government’s climate-change policy.
‘Sobering reminder’
Greens leader Bob Brown, who has condemned the government’s recently announced plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions as ineffectual, said summer fires would only worsen unless Australia and other nations showed more leadership on climate change.
”It’s a sobering reminder of the need for this nation and the whole world to act and put at a priority our need to tackle climate change,” Senator Brown said on Sunday.
The fires are around towns about 80km north of Melbourne, hitting both semi-urban and rural areas. More than 20 people are being treated for serious burns, local officials said.
”These fires won’t be out for some days,” said a tearful John Brumby, Premier of southern Victoria state, appealing for blood donors to assist medical teams aiding the burns victims.
”It’s about as horrific as it could get,” he added.
At the town of Wandong, about 50km north of Melbourne, one survivor said he had found the body of a friend in the laundry of a burnt-out house. Another survivor, 65-year-old Rosaleen Dove, said she had fought successfully for seven hours with her husband to defend her home on Saturday.
”We made it! I never thought I could jump fences so quickly,” she said.
All of the deaths, confirmed and suspected, are believed by police to have been suffered on Saturday. Police say 12 were killed around Kinglake, the worst-affected area so far known.
The main Victorian bush fire had burnt about 3Â 000ha of mainly national park on Saturday when temperatures soared close to 50 degrees Celsius. Within hours, the fire had burnt about 30Â 000ha after the wind changed direction.
Overall, fires were still burning across about 2Â 000 square kilometres in areas north of Melbourne on Sunday, with a few towns still under threat, the ABC said on its website.
”These fires are not finished, they will continue to burn for days,” said John Brumby, adding 26 fires remained out of control in the state. — Reuters