As the state of Victoria fights fires, the death toll continues to rise in the country’s worst bushfire disaster. With at least 170 people confirmed dead, the Australian towns devastated in the bushfires were declared crime scenes as forensic investigators began combing the charred landscape for evidence of how the infernos started.
It is feared that the death toll will exceed 200 people
Police indicated that they were close to finding the arsonists believed to be responsible for lighting some of the 400 blazes that have killed close to 200 people, left 5,000 homeless and destroyed a 350,000 hectare area north of Melbourne – and all in the space of just three days.
Prime Minster Kevin Rudd struggled to hold back his emotions today, as he was asked to comment on the growing possibility that the fires could be arson. Fighting back tears, he said: “This is of a level of horror that few of us anticipated.” He described the actions of the arsonists as “mass murderâ€?.
Attorney General Robert McClelland has since confirmed that those charged with starting the blazes could be charged with murder.
Six towns still remain under threat, will a 60 mile wall of flames continued to advance to the north of Melbourne.
The fires began on Friday, after more than a week record-breaking temperatures, and have since left a trail of death and destruction, burning through 350,000 hectares.
The initial death toll was reported as reaching 84, making it the worst natural disaster in Australian history, surpassing the death toll of Ash Wednesday in 1983, which claimed 76 lives. As a result of the devastation in Victoria, 50 fires are also now burning across the border in New South Wales.
Despite the heroic efforts of the local firefighters the blazes have torn across the arid landscape, with eyewitnesses speaking of flames which burnt four stories high and travelled as fast as a train. Shocking reports have been heard of fires which have overtaken the cars of those trying to escape the inferno.
“It went through like a bullet,” Darren Webb-Johnson, from the small rural town of Kinglake, told Sky TV. “The service station went, the takeaway store across the road went, cylinders [exploded] left, right and centre, and 80% of the town burnt down to the ground.”
The army has now been deployed to help those on the front line, and the country’s prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has announced immediate emergency aid of A$10m (£4.5m).
“Hell and its fury have visited the good people of Victoria,” said Rudd on a visit to the disaster zone. “The nation grieves with Victoria.”
State television ABC has been showing pictures of the small town of Marysville, which has been razed to the ground.
“Marysville, which was one the loveliest townships in Victoria, if not Australia, has just about been wiped out,” said Ivor Jones, a pastor whose own home in the town was destroyed.
The fires have hit a string of towns 50 miles north of Melbourne, and are currently still burning across 770 square miles.
“These fires won’t be out for some days,” said an emotional John Brumby, the premier of Victoria, who has also reported that 26 fires remain out of control in the Victoria area. “It’s about as horrific as it could get,” he said.
Watch the latest ABC news report here:
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