CNN Australian bush inferno claims 131 lives so far

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document.write(cnnRenderTimeStamp(1234168631004,['February 9, 2009 -- Updated 0837 GMT (1637 HKT)','updated 3:37 a.m. EST, Mon February 9, 2009']));

updated 28 minutes ago

Australian bush inferno claims 131 lives so far

• Story Highlights
• NEW: At least 131 people dead; 200,000 hectares of land, 600 houses have burned
  
• Arson suspected as cause of some fires, which are being investigated
  
• 400 troops to head to affected areas to aid in rescue and recovery efforts
  
• Bushfires are fueled by high temperatures and strong winds
•  

(CNN) -- Australia mobilized its armed forces Monday as raging wildfires killed at least 131 people, decimating massive areas of land in the south-east of the country and leaving thousands of residents homeless.

Craig Kidd looks at the melted wheels of his vehicles after a fire swept his property on February 9 in Bendigo.

 

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"This has been a devastating event for our state," said John Brumby, the premier of the state of Victoria, noting the climbing death toll. "We'll see that number go tragically go higher."

The flames narrowly spared his parents. Brumby said the fire stopped just outside their house in the western part of the state.

The fires have swept through the state, leaving some firefighters and police to describe the destruction "as something of a holocaust," said Phil Shepherd, an inspector with the Victoria state police.

"We had an impact all over the state," Shepherd told CNN Monday, adding that two towns -- Marysville and Kingslake -- have been "completely wiped out." Brumby said more than 800 homes have been burned.

In an interview with Australian television Monday, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he fears the situation will get worse before it gets better.

"I think it's important that the nation braces itself for more bad news ... this is a little horror which few of us anticipated," Rudd said, breaking down in tears at one point during the interview.

Meanwhile, Victoria police are investigating the possibility that at least two of the fires were set deliberately, said Superintendent Ross McNeill, adding that no arrests had been made.

"When you look at the way fires started, you can clearly see it's not possible for a natural ignition to occur," said Kieran Walshe, the deputy police commissioner for the state.

A man was charged with lighting fires in the neighboring state of New South Wales, police there said.

The 31-year-old Killarney Vale man was due in court Monday after being arrested on Saturday, they said.

News that some fires may have been deliberately set brought a note of disgust from the prime minister.

"What do you say about anyone like that?" Rudd said. "There's no words to describe it, other than it's mass murder." Some of the fires are now considered crime scenes and are being investigated by authorities.

As many as 400 Australian troops will be heading to affected areas to aid in rescue and recovery efforts, and resettlement services will be provided to displaced families, Rudd said.

Police are calling the wildfires the worst in the nation's history. Firefighters on the scene have been working with other emergency service personnel to cut fire breaks while police erect roadblocks to evacuate residents, Shepherd said.

The number of dead has exceeded the toll of 75 in the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983, and close to 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) of land have burned, according to Kendra Jackson, leading senior constable of Victoria's state police.

Thousands of weary firefighters spent Sunday fighting a losing battle to contain the flames.

"It's an absolute feeling of helplessness," said Michelle Achison, who lives in a suburb of Victoria. "There are communities that are completely flattened. There's nothing at all. And each and every one of us knows somebody who will lose everything."

The death toll seemed to rise every hour Sunday as rescue workers discovered more bodies. Some victims died in cars while trying to flee the flames. Others had stayed put inside houses that were burned to their shells.

"I've heard of sad stories of flames going over cars and maybe one person surviving," Dr. John Coleridge of Victoria's Alfred Hospital told reporters Sunday. "I suspect today they will find lots of cars with people who haven't survived."

Hospital officials treating burn victims said the wounds were the worst they have seen since the terrorist bombings in the Indonesian island of Bali in 2002.

"Hell and all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria in the last 24 hours," Rudd told reporters while touring the fire-ravaged areas.

In a statement posted on the government's Web site, Queen Elizabeth II -- Australia's ceremonial head of state -- expressed her condolences to victims of the fires and praised the rescue efforts of firefighters and other emergency personnel.

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"I was shocked and saddened to learn of the terrible toll being exacted by the fires this weekend. I send my heartfelt condolences to the families of all those who have died and my deep sympathy to the many that have lost their homes in this disaster," the statement said.

Rudd announced the creation of a AU$10 million ($6.7 million) relief fund to immediately assist the more than 600 families that have lost homes to the blaze. He also promised troops would be deployed to help fight the flames.

All day Sunday, winds fanned flames into local towns, where the blazes spread with frightening speed, devouring homes.

Residents -- with handkerchiefs covering their faces -- pointed garden hoses at the flames or tried to stamp out hotspots with towels and clothes, but to no avail.

"All I got left is what I stand in and a bag," a woman told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, before breaking down. "My house. My house of 25 years is gone. I worked so hard for that house."

So many people have brought donations to relief centers in Victoria that the police have asked them to stop.

"Police appreciate that people want to help the victims of the fire," senior constable Wayne Wilson said in a statement, but added: "The number of people bringing items to the centers is causing difficulties in the operation of these centers."

As darkness descended, the flames continued to lick the night sky. Aerial views showed rivers of orange trickling in all directions amid the dense vegetation.

The largest blaze was centered in the Kinglake area, about 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Melbourne, Australia's second most populated city and the capital of Victoria.

One silver lining amid the devastation: The fires have not posed a significant threat to more populous areas, including Melbourne, as they sweep across rural outskirts of southeastern Australia, Walshe said.

Still, said Achison, the Victoria resident, the state is so dry from lack of rain that there aren't any safe areas.

"Last night, there was a grassfire on flat dry grass on one of the properties. And within minutes, six homes in a row were burned to the ground," she said. "These weren't people who were preparing to evacuate, because they were told they weren't in any danger."

Wildfires are an annual event in Australia. But this year, a combination of factors has made them especially intense: a drought, dry bush and one of the most powerful heat waves in memory.

Police expect that some of the fires will burn for a number of days, while others may take weeks to completely extinguish.

Temperatures in parts of Melbourne reached 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) in the past few weeks. Dozens of heat-related deaths have been reported.

By Sunday, the temperatures had dropped to the mid-20s in the area. Officials were hoping for some help from milder weather moving in. Droplets of rain had started to fall in some areas.

Northern Australia, on the other hand, is grappling with a different problem. Sixty percent of the state of Queensland was flooded, officials reported, and residents were warned to be on the lookout for crocodiles in urban areas.