http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200902/r337233_1529798.jpgForests - State News - February 2009
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11/02/09 Jenny and John Barnett : Shared love of nature ends in Victorian bushfire tragedy, Obituary Milanda Rout The Australian
11/02/09 Council ignored fire warning, Asa Wahlquist, Rural writer The Australian our highlighting our highlighting (??)
10/02/09 Victoria bushfires stoked by green vote, David Packham The Australian our highlighting (??)
08/02/09 11:32: PM | At least 84 dead in Victorian bushfires Source: AAP
08/02/09 5:14pm Death toll climbs as killer fires rage
08/02/09 1:54am More than 40 feared dead, 100 homes lost in Victorian fires our highlighting
08/02/09 1.10pm Six dead in Kinglake: 'The whole town is gone' ABC NEWS
08/02/09 Firebugs relighting Victorian fires: CFA http://www.abcscience.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/08/2485401.htm
07/02/09 Death toll may reach more than 40: police Fourteen people have been killed in the savage bushfires which set Victoria ablaze today.AAP
Obituary
Shared love of nature ends in Victorian bushfire tragedy
Milanda Rout | February 11, 2009
The Australian
HELPING to protect the environment and the wildlife that inhabited it was what drove Jenny and John Barnett.
Both were researchers for environmental organisations and devoted their lives to the cause.
Friends and colleagues yesterday said the pair loved going to their holiday house in Steels Creeks every weekend to be "refreshed" and have some peace and tranquillity.
The couple were at their weekend retreat on Saturday night when the fire swept through the community, taking at least 13 lives. They did not survive.
Ms Barnett, a researcher with the Victorian National Parks Association, completed work on mammal counts, endangered species and fuel-reduction burning, which she supported in the state's national parks. She was also a voice for the environment, tirelessly campaigning on wildlife issues in the media.
Mr Barnett had worked at the Department of Primary Industries to help prevent animal cruelty, before moving to the University of Melbourne 12 months ago to take up a role as an associate professor at the Department of Agriculture and Food Systems.
Friends described Mr Barnett as a brilliant researcher who was passionate about the protection of animals. "He was a meticulous scientist and was very driven," said his boss -- and friend -- Frank Dunshea.
Professor Dunshea said Mr Barnett worked on improving the code of practice on how animals were housed, as well as looking at animal behaviour. He said his department was still in shock over his death in the bushfire tragedy.
"Jenny and John loved their weekend retreat in Steels Creek. They spent every weekend there and he always returned on Monday morning refreshed and relaxed," he said.
Colleagues and friends at the VNPA are coming to terms with losing Ms Barnett. "Jenny was a conservationist, she was a tireless researcher and respected for her reports and contributions," said Phil Ingamells, who worked with Ms Barnett. "She was also a delight to be around the place."
Asa Wahlquist, Rural writer | February 11, 2009 our highlighting our highlighting (??)
THE shire council covering some of the areas hit hardest by the bushfires was warned five years ago that its policy of encouraging people to grow trees near their homes to give the appearance of a forest would lead to disaster.
One of Australia's leading bushfire experts, Rod Incoll, warned Nillumbik Shire Council in a 2003 report that it risked devastation if it went ahead with changes to planning laws proposed by green groups that restricted the removal of vegetation.
Mr Incoll, the Victorian fire chief from 1990 to 1996, and David Packham, a former CSIRO bushfire scientist and academic who also produced a report on the issue, argued against the regulations, which actively encouraged the builders of new homes to plant trees around the houses for aesthetic reasons.
Mr Incoll told The Australian yesterday the proposed planning rules were "foolhardy and dangerous and ought not to be proceeded with".
"But they were nevertheless instituted," he said. "That is certainly one of the things that people will be looking at as an aftermath of this tragic event."
Mr Packham, now an honorary senior research fellow at Monash University's school of geography and environmental science, wrote in his report, after inspecting the Kinglake to Heidelberg Road: "The mix of fuel, unsafe roadsides and embedded houses, some with zero protection and no hope of survival, will all ensure that when a large fire impinges upon the area a major disaster will result."
Mr Incoll said that in 2003, green groups were pushing for changes to planning laws that included restrictions on the removal of vegetation, "and worse still, the requirement for planting vegetation around and almost over houses, as part of any planning permit to build a house in the shire of Nillumbik, so it gave the appearance from the outside of being a forest".
In 2003, the Nillumbik Ratepayers Group asked Mr Incoll to assess the bushfire risk, and the proposed planning rules.
Council elections were looming, and planning was a major issue. "The green group carried the day in council and the rules came to pass," he said.
Nillumbik Shire councillors, many of whom were last night attending community meetings across the region, declined to comment.
The councillors said it would be inappropriate to speak about a six-year-old report when bushfires were still raging in the area and a royal commission had been announced.
Nillumbik shire calls itself the "green wedge shire". It extends from the Yarra River, on the northwest outskirts of Melbourne to Kinglake National Park. Its villages include Eltham, Hurstbridge, St Andrews, Strathewen and the outskirts of Kinglake.
Mr Incoll and Mr Packham both produced reports for the group. "There was a planning process under the auspices of the state planning authority, and David (Packham) and I gave lengthy evidence," Mr Incoll said.
"They took no notice whatsoever of what we said."
The reports on Nillumbik shire were not the first to warn of the increased bushfire risk associated with failing to manage vegetation around towns.
Victoria's auditor-general warned 17 years ago that a failure to carry out controlled burn-offs placed the state at risk of bushfires. In a 1992 report to parliament, the auditor-general criticised the Department of Conservation and Environment for letting combustible material build up on the forest floor.
"The failure of the department to achieve its planned fuel reduction burns each year has resulted in an increasing accumulation of fuel on forest floors," the report stated. "This makes Victoria's forests and protected lands more susceptible to the occurrence offires."
The report said the department was not burning in "priority1 zones" because they were too close to houses".
"Those areas warranting the highest level of protection to human life, property and public assets had in fact received the lowest level of protection," it said.
The auditor-general's audit found "fuel loads" of combustible material on the forest floors in the range of 20 to 60 tonnes a hectare in the Alexandra and Orbost regions and at Blackwood near Geelong - seven times higher than the department's target.
Mr Incoll said the CSIRO had put out excellent plain-English publications on building safety standards for bushfire-prone areas and that the Country Fire Authority was doing a good job of public education. After the Ash Wednesday fires, fire researcher Andrew Wilson had produced the CSIRO House Survival Meter, a simple calculator to determine the chances of a house surviving a bushfire.
"That, plus the CSIRO information, plus the CFA information, should have and would have been sufficient to prevent most of these unfortunate deaths. It falls down somewhere around the implementation," Mr Incoll said.
He said one of the commonsense rules was not having a tree within a tree height and a half from the house - about 50m.
"People had vegetation growing up in their eves. Vegetation clearance wasn't observed. People didn't understand the threat or believe the threat."
Some areas had very strict controls about the removal of vegetation, "trees being the holy green icon", he said. "Removal of trees is quite an effort in many municipalities and Nillumbik is one of them."
Mr Incoll said he had always worried about the flee-early-or-fight message.
"An untrained person who has never seen a fire like that, and hasn't properly prepared their house, has really got no hope in the teeth of a fire like that if they cop the full force of it," he said, referring to Saturday's fire.
He was hopeful that the royal commission announced on Monday would result in "a collection of all the wisdom that has been gathered over the years".
This article from: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/
Victoria bushfires stoked by green vote
David Packham | February 10, 2009
Article from: The Australian - our highlighting (????)
VICTORIA has suffered the most tragic bushfire disaster to have occurred on this continent throughout its period of human habitation.
The deaths, loss of homes and businesses and the blow to our feeling of security will take decades to fade into history. The trauma will live with the victims, who, to a greater or lesser extent, are all of us.
How could this happen when we have been told in a withering, continuous barrage of public relations that with technology and well-polished uniforms, we can cope with the unleashing of huge forces of nature.
I have been a bushfire scientist for more than 50 years, dealing with all aspects of bushfires, from prescribed burning to flame chemistry, and serving as supervisor of fire weather services for Australia. We need to understand what has happened so that we can accept or prevent future fire disasters.
That this disaster was about to happen became clear when the weather bureau issued an accurate fire weather forecast last Wednesday, which prompted me, as a private citizen, to raise the alarm through a memo distributed to concerned residents.
The science is simple. A fire disaster of this nature requires a combination of hot, dry, windy weather in drought conditions. It also requires a source of ignition. In the past, this purpose has been served by lightning. In this disaster, lightning has not played a big part, and for this Victorians should be grateful. But other sources of ignition are ever-present. When the temperature and wind increase to extreme levels, small events -- perhaps the scrape of metal across a rock, a transformer overheating or sparks from a diesel engine -- are capable of starting a fire that can in minutes become unstoppable if the fuel is present.
The third and only controllable factor in this deadly triangle is fuel: the dead leaves, pieces of bark and grass that become the gas that feeds the 50m high flames that roar through the bush with the sound of jet engines.
Fuels build up year after year at an approximate rate of one tonne a hectare a year, up to a maximum of about 30 tonnes a hectare. If the fuels exceed about eight tonnes a hectare, disastrous fires can and will occur. Every objective analysis of the dynamics of fuel and fire concludes that unless the fuels are maintained at near the levels that our indigenous stewards of the land achieved, then we will have unhealthy and unsafe forests that from time to time will generate disasters such as the one that erupted on saturday.
It has been a difficult lesson for me to accept that despite the severe damage to our forests and even a fatal fire in our nation's capital, the political decision has been to do nothing that will change the extreme threat to which our forests and rural lands are exposed.
The decision to ignore the threat has been encouraged by some shocking pseudo-science from a few academics
who use arguments that may have a place in political discourse but should have no place in managing our environment and protecting it and us from the bushfire threat.
The conclusion of these academics is that high intensity fires are good for the environment and that the resulting mudslides after rains are merely localised and serve to redistribute nutrients.
The purpose of this failed policy is to secure uninformed city votes.
Only a few expert retired fire managers, experienced bushies and some courageous politicians are prepared to buck the decision to lock up our bush and leave it to burn.
The politicians who willingly accept this rubbish use it to justify the perpetuation of the greatest threat to our forests, water supplies, homes and lives in order to secure a minority green vote. They continue to throw millions (and no doubt soon billions) at ineffective suppression toys, while the few foresters and bush people who know how to manage our public lands are starved of the resources they need to reduce fuel loads.
It is hard for me to see this perversion of public policy and to accept that the folk of the bush have lost their battle to live a safe life in a cared-for rural and forest environment, all because of the environmental fantasies of outraged extremists and latte conservationists.
In a letter to my local paper, the Weekly Times, on January 25, I predicted we were facing a very critical situation in which 1000 to 2000 homes could be lost in the Yarra catchment, the Otways and/or the Strezleckies; that 100 souls could be lost in a most horrible and violent way; and that there was even a threat to Melbourne's water supply, which could be rendered unusable by the ash and debris. Horrifically, much of this has come to pass, and it is not yet the end of the bushfire season.
In the face of this inferno, the perpetrators of this obscenity should have the decency to stand up and say they were wrong. Southeast Australia is the worst place in the world for bushfires, and we must not waste any time in getting down to the task of making our bush healthy and safe.
But don't hold your breath. Do you hear that lovely sound the warbling pigs make as they fly by?
David Packham OAM is an honorary senior research fellow at Monash University's school of geography and environmental science.
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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25031389-7583,00.html
08 February 2009 | 11:32:14 PM | Source: AAP
Dozens have been killed in bushfires raging in Victoria. (AAP)
The death toll from Victoria's bushfires has risen to 84, police say, in what has officially become Australia's deadliest bushfires disaster.
As dozens of blazes continued to rage on Sunday night, it seemed certain that the rapidly-unfolding disaster would claim many more lives.
By 8.30pm (AEDT), at least 750 homes had been destroyed, more than 330,000 hectares burnt out - 220,000ha alone in the Kinglake Complex wildfire - while authorities said some fires could take weeks to contain.
Entire towns were wiped out while communities in Dederang, Taggerty and Glenburn in the state's north were still under threat on Sunday night, almost 36 hours after the first fires were sparked by record heat and winds on Saturday.
"Hell and all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria in the last 24 hours," Mr Rudd told reporters in the fire-ravaged Yarra Valley.
"Many good people now lie dead. Many others lie injured.
"This is an appalling tragedy for Victoria but, because of that, it's an appalling tragedy for the nation.
"The nation grieves with Victoria tonight."
In an address to the state, Victorian Premier John Brumby said "out there it's been hell on earth".
He defiantly declared: "We will put communities back together, Victoria will recover".
Authorities believe some of the blazes were deliberately lit and police say arsonists could face murder charges and a maximum 25 years in prison.
The toll already surpasses the 47 deaths in Victoria and 28 in South Australia in the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires, while the Black Friday blaze in 1939 claimed 71 lives.
Ten people remain in a critical condition in hospital with serious burns.
The Kinglake region, about 80km north of Melbourne, was the worst hit - at least 550 homes razed and 63 deaths reported in the area as of 8.30pm (AEDT) on Sunday as the furious 220,000-hectare inferno, known as the Kinglake Complex, gave locals little chance.
One fire official said the blaze had a perimeter of "several hundred" kilometres.
Former Nine Network newsreader Brian Naylor, whose family had a property at Kinglake West, was missing feared dead while his wife Moiree had been confirmed killed, a network spokesman confirmed.
According to residents, much of the town of Kinglake, which suffered at least eight deaths, had been destroyed and nearby Marysville was wiped off the map as the fireball showed no mercy on a fearful Saturday night and early Sunday morning.
"It was a most horrible day. It's going to look like Hiroshima, I tell you, it's going to look like a nuclear bomb. There's animals dead all over the road," Kinglake resident Chris Harvey told AAP.
Six of the victims were in one car trying to outrun the inferno which swept through Kinglake in minutes. Dr Harvey said the town was littered with burnt-out cars, and he believed many contained bodies.
Dr Harvey's daughters Victoria and Ali, both in their 20s, told of a local man, Ross, who lost both his daughters and possibly a brother.
"He apparently went to put his kids in the car, put them in, turned around to go grab something from the house, then his car was on fire with his kids in it, and they burnt," Victoria said.
Almost the entire town of nearby Marysville in the picturesque Upper Yarra Valley was razed, with houses, shops, petrol stations and schools destroyed after the East Kilmore and Murrindindi Mill fires merged to create the massive Kinglake Complex, which is still causing major headaches for firefighters.
Two people had been killed in Marysville, according to a police update just after 7pm (AEDT).
Ten people were killed in Kinglake West and 12 in nearby St Andrews.
Nine deaths were reported in Gippsland in the state's east on Sunday as the 32,860-hectare Churchill fire burned almost to the coast. The Bunyip Ridge fire burned 25,000 hectares and torched the township of Labertouche on Saturday.
Four people are confirmed dead at Callignee, one at Upper Callignee, three at Hazelwood and one at Jeeralang in Gippsland - the areas hardest hit by the Churchill blaze.
Fire authorities said the threat to townships from the Bunyip Ridge and Churchill fires had subsided, but residents needed to remain alert.
Crews would still be patrolling the area overnight.
Two people were confirmed dead at Mudgeegonga, near Beechworth, while one person was reported dead at Bendigo and another at nearby Long Gully.
The 30,000-hectare Beechworth-Library Road blaze, three kilometres south of Beechworth, in the state's northeast, was still listed as out of control late on Sunday evening but the threat was believed to be easing.
The ages and sex of the deceased is not known in all cases, however police expect that some children will be among them.
Touring the Yarra Valley firegrounds with Premier Brumby, Mr Rudd announced a joint federal-state $10 million emergency relief fund for the victims.
He said emergency Centrelink payments were available to those needing immediate financial assistance.
Mr Brumby said volunteer firefighters and aircraft were coming in from NSW and South Australia, while the Australian army would also be brought in to help.
Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said the ACT was dispatching 90 firefighters and support personnel to Beechworth to help battle the fire, along with 10 light and heavy tankers.
Posted Sun Feb 8, 2009 3:51pm AEDT
Updated Sun Feb 8, 2009 5:14pm AEDT
Disaster ... 'Nature gave Victoria a beating of unimaginable proportions.' (AAP: Catherine Best)
This weekend's bushfires in Victoria are more deadly for the state than Ash Wednesday, as the death toll stands at 50 and is expected to rise.
The human toll is compounded by the loss of at least 640 homes but the true extent of the damage is not yet clear.
Authorities suspect arsonists are responsible for some fires.
Six of the confirmed dead have been found at Kinglake, six at Kinglake West and four each at St Andrews and Wandong, all north of Melbourne.
Five people are dead in Callignee, three in Hazelwood and one in Jeeralang. More bodies have been found at Humevale, Bendigo, Upper Callignee, Long Gully, Strathewan and Arthurs Creek.
Victoria's deputy police commissioner Kieran Walshe says the death toll will rise and it is expected to include children.
The town of Marysville north of Melbourne has been all but destroyed and there are grave fears for nearby Kinglake, where residents have described a "town on fire".
A fire in Beechworth in the state's north-east has grown to around 25,000 hectares after the wind changed from west to south-west around midday. Houses there have come under ember attack and power lines are also under threat.
Meanwhile the blazes which have razed homes just north of Melbourne have grown to more than 210,000 hectares and are burning towards Glenburn, Taggerty and Rubicon.
Emergency Services Commissioner Bruce Esplin said he felt numb after watching fires leave authorities almost helpless.
"Nature gave Victoria a beating of unimaginable proportions," he told ABC Local Radio.
He says the deaths are an awful reminder that people should be prepared to leave their homes early.
"Bushfire risk is real, it's horribly real. It can become an awful reality with little warning and no second chance," he said.
"You can rebuild a house but you can't rebuild a life."
He says exhausted fire fighters - both paid and volunteer - may not get much chance to rest.
"Summer's not over yet, this fire's not over yet. Fire services aren't just going round blacking out, they're trying to put fires out.
"The Victorian summer is a long way from over and there'll almost certainly be more bushfires."
Murrindindi Shire Mayor Lyn Gunter is among residents believed to have lost homes in the Flowerdale area.
Fire authorities are struggling to get into the centre of the towns to survey the full scale of the damage, and ambulance services in Kinglake say they are being overwhelmed by calls for help. Police say 514 homes in Kinglake have been lost.
ABC reporter Jane Cowan earlier described the horrific scene in Marysville.
"We were in the main street and it's like a warzone, like a bomb has been dropped on the entire township," she said.
"People there are in an absolute state of shock. Most people had already left, but the people, I'd say about 30 people that are still left and had spent the night sheltering on the Football Oval there, are just completely dazed.
"[They are] walking around the streets with rugs around their shoulders because it's actually getting cold here now, if you can believe it.
"There are stories of households that sheltered three families in one house. Of gas bottles from nearby houses exploding and then piercing their houses and then those houses catching fire as well. It's an absolute warzone.
"People are saying that there are bodies in the town, terrible stories of for instance a woman who was found in her car this morning, obviously, was trying to escape. She didn't make it. She had her crockery on the seat beside her in the car."
Great-grandmother Olga Tuckerman said she had God on her side when a blaze swept through Bendigo's western suburbs, in central Victoria.
She said she returned to Bendigo today to find her house standing alone amid a mass of smoking, razed houses.
"Someone up there was looking out for me," Mrs Tuckerman told Australian Associated Press.
But her neighbours were not as lucky. Jean Perkins, 72, returned to find smoking ruins where her house used to be.
"I said a couple of prayers yesterday - please keep my home Lord, but he wanted to take mine for some reason," she said.
An ABC reporter in Labertouche today told Local Radio people were shell-shocked after the Bunyip fire, east of Melbourne, had engulfed surrounding forests and property yesterday.
She said high winds pushed walls of fire over houses in the area at enormous speed yesterday. She described an interview she was conducting when the wind changed in the middle of the Saturday.
"We felt a strong gust of wind during the interview, we stopped the interview and in almost an instant the fire came over," she said.
"You can be prepared as you like but nothing gets you ready for that."
There is cool weather forecast for the next few days which is expected to make conditions easier for fire fighters. But with no prospect of decent rainfall, lightning strikes could start more fires.
John Coleridge from the Alfred Hospital has likened the influx of burns victims to the aftermath of the Bali bombings.
"Everybody was called in large numbers," he said.
"And they would have burns and blast victims there, so that would be the only parallel that I can think of."
The Victorian Health Minister, Daniel Andrews, says 78 people have been admitted to hospitals throughout the state with various burns, and hundreds of others have turned up at emergency departments, with less serious injuries.
CFA officials say they suspect at least one arsonist of relighting fires that had burnt out, and lighting new fires ahead of existing fire fronts.
"To think you could do that yesterday in those conditions when you knew that any fire you lit had the potential to cause severe losses and death, I think that's something that is just appalling," said Victorian Emergency Services Minister, Bob Cameron.
Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull added to the calls to hunt down firebugs.
"It is difficult to imagine a more horrific crime than arson," he said in Sydney.
"All Australians will expect the authorities to want the police to... be absolutely relentless in tracking down those responsible and ensuring they're brought to justice."
Victoria has accepted an offer from the Federal Government for the Defence Force to be drafted in to help with the fires.
The Emergency Services Minister, Bob Cameron, says the army has bulldozers and other equipment that can be used to strengthen containment lines.
If you can see flames call the Country Fire Authority's information line on 1800 240 667.
Tune into a special edition of ABC News tonight at 7pm on ABC1 and streamed live on ABC News Online.
Posted Sun Feb 8, 2009 11:11am AEDT
Updated Sun Feb 8, 2009 11:20am AEDT
At least one firebug is adding to the misery of Victorians and hampering the efforts of exhausted firefighters.
The Country Fire Authority says it is unsure of how many arsonists there are, or their identities, but has confirmed that some of the fires raging across tens of thousands of hectares are being deliberately relit.
Steve Warrington, the deputy chief of CFA operations at the emergency centre, says a blaze burning in Churchill in the Gippsland region is spreading faster than expected due to suspected arson.
"We had predictions yesterday that we thought there would be spotting of about seven or eight kilometres," he told ABC Local Radio.
"We know we do have someone who is lighting fires in this community. While we often think it's spotting, we also know that there are people lighting fires deliberately."
But he says even without arson, the fires have burned more intensely than anyone anticipated.
"A lot of these fires actually went over expectations," he said.
"This was one of them. It actually exceeded expectations and went towards the coast."
At least 26 people have been killed and more than 100 homes have been destroyed in what Victorian Premier John Brumby has described as the worst weekend in Victoria's history.
For information on the Victorian fires call the Country Fire Authority's information line on 1800 240 667.
Posted Sun Feb 8, 2009 4:43am AEDT
Updated Sun Feb 8, 2009 6:35am AEDT
http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200902/r337233_1529798.jpghttp://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200902/r337233_1529798.jpg
The number of houses destroyed is also expected to climb. (AFP: William West)
Victoria is braced for a day of mourning, with the death toll from the state's rampant bushfires expected to pass 40.
Fourteen deaths have been confirmed so far. Six people have been killed at Kinglake, four at Wandong, three at Strathewen and one at Clonbinane.
The number of houses destroyed is also expected to climb, with at least 100 already confirmed, and steady reports of destruction continuing to filter in.
Destroyed homes include 50 in Bendigo and 30 at Wandong, north of Melbourne.
ABC Local Radio caller Georgina, whose husband is battling to salvage the town of Strathewen with CFA volunteers, says the town has been devastated by the devastating fires.
She fears many of the town's residents may have lost their lives.
"It's just absolute devastation and people have seen things today that have been absolutely horrific," she said.
"There's a lot of families in Strathewen that we haven't been able to account for.
"The school's gone, the hall's gone... some people left it too late. We've lost friends, and we're just waiting for more - children, loved ones."
She says the town is largely inaccessible as fallen logs and debris block the main roads, but has urged trapped residents to remain optimistic.
"They're just so cut off out there and we just wait for daylight now and hope that there's nothing out there left to burn," she said.
"They're calling out to houses and they can't hear people answering. Hang in there anybody that's listening and still cut off because they're coming."
Georgina says her family miraculously escaped alive after losing their homes.
"My house is gone and most of my family and friends' houses are gone. I have my uncle and cousins and people bunkered up in my mother's house, which is one of the only surviving ones," she said.
"They've got no mobile reception, they've got no power, no water. The tanks have melted, they were in dams, they were hiding behind concrete tanks and it's amazing we didn't lose any family members."
"I'm very grateful that we're still here and we're OK... we evacuated early."
Senior Constable Wayne Wilson has urged people to be patient and avoid speculation, as clarification on a final death toll will take time.
"We have the official toll at 14, obviously under the conditions we expect it to go higher, [but] we've got to go through these places in the daylight, where we can search them properly," he said.
"These sort of situations it does take time for clarification to come through... particularly when you are dealing with death.
"We do it as quickly as we can but we've got to do it in a methodical and accurate way."
The Country Fire Authority says there is "possibly one building left standing" in Marysville, as relentless bushfires engulfed the town north of Melbourne.
Greg Esnouf, the CFA's deputy chief fire officer, told ABC Local Radio that Marysville had been all but destroyed by the blazes.
"We're starting to get some reports in now that are very saddening," he told ABC Local 774 in Melbourne.
"This latest report says Marysville possibly one building left standing - that's just shocking.
"Anyone who knows Marysville, it's a beautiful town and that's really sad. "It's very disturbing for the township itself."
The CFA later issued a statement saying Marysvalle residents were safe and had assembled at the local Gallipoli Park.
Earlier, Kinglake resident Peter Mitchell told ABC Local Radio that buildings all around him were on fire as he sheltered at the fire station.
"[There is] flame everywhere, trees exploding, gas tanks exploding, buildings on fire, it's very, very, very serious.
"I can't quite see down into the main stretch of town, but there's a lot of flame coming up from there, so I presume most of the town is going up.
Mr Mitchell said he feared for the safety of other Kinglake residents.
"We'll be fine, there'll be others trapped, poor souls I don't know," he added.
The cool change which promised to bring relief to struggling crews instead brought changing winds, turning fires from extremely dangerous to deadly.
The deterioration in conditions forced many crews to abandon fighting fire fronts and focus on protecting properties.
Mr Esnouf says the weather will offer only minor relief from the harsh conditions.
"There's been some reports of a bit of rain here, and a bit of rain there and that will certainly help overnight and into tomorrow but it won't put the fires out," he said.
Firefighters are continuing to work on 10 major fire fronts across the state.
The CFA has warned a fire burning near Beechworth in Victoria's north is pushing east, with spot fires appearing up to 6 kilometres ahead of the main front.
The Victorian Government has activated the emergency grants system, with financial assistance available for people damaged or destroyed property.
For information on the Victorian fires call the Country Fire Authority's information line on 1800 240 667.
Concerned Australians are being urged to show restraint in using the emergency services websites, with several struggling to cope with the increased traffic.
However a CFA spokesman said those concerned about the wellbeing of loved ones should not hesitate to use the sites.
Posted Sun Feb 8, 2009 12:27am AEDT ABC News
Updated Sun Feb 8, 2009 1:20am AEDT
Kinglake, north of Melbourne, has been among the hardest hit in the Victorian bushfire emergency with six people in the township confirmed dead.
Resident Peter Mitchell told ABC Local Radio the town was at the mercy of fires which swept through it after a wind direction change.
Mr Mitchell said there was no-one to fight the fire because fire crews were already fighting other fires across the state.
He was forced to leave his home to shelter at the local fire station.
"The whole of Kinglake is ablaze, I live a couple of [kilometres] out of town, I heard explosions, by the time I got to the road there were fires everywhere," he said.
"[There is] flame everywhere, trees exploding, gas tanks exploding, buildings on fire, it's very, very, very serious.
"I can't quite see down into the main stretch of town, but there's a lot of flame coming up from there, so I presume most of the town is going up.
"It's worst-case, it's like Cockatoo back at Ash Wednesday."
Mr Mitchell said he feared for the safety of other Kinglake residents.
"We'll be fine, there'll be others trapped, poor souls I don't know."
Denise was heading home from her mother-in-law's house just outside Kinglake when she was forced to turn back as fires bore down on the town.
She was spared, but others were not so lucky. "The whole town is gone," she said.
She said her mother-in-law's house was surrounded by flames. "Everything around us is burning.
"Trees are burning, things are blowing up, there are a lot of houses burnt to the ground. A lot of houses ... It's pretty devastating actually."
Posted Sat Feb 7, 2009 11:44pm AEDT ABC News
Updated Sun Feb 8, 2009 1:54am AEDT
Firefighters are battling 11 fire fronts across Victoria. (AFP: William West)
It is feared more than 40 people have died as ferocious bushfires sweep across much of country Victoria and New South Wales.
Fourteen deaths have so far been confirmed in Victoria
and more than 100 properties lost, as swamped fire crews battle dozens of blazes.The cool change which promised to bring relief to struggling crews has instead brought changing winds, turning fires from extremely dangerous to deadly.
The deterioration in conditions has forced many crews to abandon fighting fire fronts and focus on protecting properties.
Six people are known to have died at Kinglake, north of Melbourne, when fire swept through the entire town.
Local resident Peter Mitchell told ABC Local Radio that buildings all around him were on fire as he sheltered at the fire station.
"The whole of Kinglake is ablaze, I live a couple of [kilometres] out of town, I heard explosions, by the time I got to the road there were fires everywhere," he said.
"[There is] flame everywhere, trees exploding, gas tanks exploding, buildings on fire, it's very, very, very serious.
"I can't quite see down into the main stretch of town, but there's a lot of flame coming up from there, so I presume most of the town is going up.
"It's worst-case, it's like Cockatoo back at Ash Wednesday."
Mr Mitchell said he feared for the safety of other Kinglake residents.
"We'll be fine, there'll be others trapped, poor souls I don't know."
Mr Mitchell said the town was left unprotected when the fire swept towards it.
"Very little [emergency services], because they're all out fighting other fires. We've got a water tanker here, we don't have a fire truck, but we've got some pumps from the fire station."
Four deaths have also been confirmed at Wandong, three at Strathewen and one at Clonbinane.
Firefighters are continuing to work on 11 major fire fronts across the state.
Dozens of homes have been destroyed but it will be some time before the full extent of the losses is known.
Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe says the death toll is almost certain to rise.
"This has been an absolute tragedy for the state and we believe this figure may only get worse," he said.
"We're concerned this figure could even reach up into the 40s."
Police say they will strive to confirm the identities of the victims by the morning.
Victorian Premier John Brumby says it has been a horrific day.
"We have had 14 confirmed deaths. There will be more unfortunately and that number could rise considerably," he said.
"It's been I think the worst day in our history, we've had temperatures across the state of some parts of 48 degrees."
Fires are becoming so big they are creating their own weather.
Senior weather forecaster, Terry Ryan, says thunderstorms are forming over fire-affected parts of west Gippsland.
"We call it pyrocumulus, where all the ash coming out of the fire causes lifting and convection, and can cause a thunderstorm-looking top," he said.
Concerned Australians are being urged to show restraint in using the emergency services websites, with several struggling to cope with the increased traffic.
However a CFA spokesman said those concerned about the wellbeing of loved ones should not hesitate to use the sites.
For information on the Victorian fires call the Country Fire Authority's information line on 1800 240 667. The New South Wales Rural Fire Service information hotline is 1800 679 737.
A man arrested earlier today on suspicion of lighting a fire on the New South Wales central coast has been released without charge. The 31-year-old man was arrested on the Pacific Highway this afternoon.
Firefighters are battling more than 40 fires across the state, with more extreme weather conditions forecast for tomorrow.
The Country Fire Authority monitors a giant fire raging in the Bunyip State Forest. Photo: AFP
Fourteen people have been killed in the savage bushfires which set Victoria ablaze today.
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Victoria police confirmed the deaths tonight and said they fear the figure may be more than 40.
At least 100 homes have been destroyed as nine major blazes burnt out of control across Victoria in the worst fire conditions in the state's history.
Deputy police commissioner Kieran Walshe said all the deaths were in a massive blaze northwest of Melbourne - six at Kinglake, four at nearby Wandong, three at Strathewen and one in Clonbinane.
Mr Walshe said he believed the Kinglake victims were all in the same car.
He believed arsonists were responsible for some of the nine major fires ripping across the state.
"We suspect a number of the fires have been deliberately lit,'' Mr Walshe told reporters.
"This is an absolute tragedy for the state and we believe the figure may even get worse,'' Mr Walshe said.
"We base that on the fact we're only just getting into these areas now ... to search buildings and properties these have been very very significant fires ... the figure could get into the 40s.''
The fire started in East Kilmore, 80km north of Melbourne, and covered a huge area as it pushed 30km east to Kinglake, through the small townships of Wandong, Strathewen and Clonbinane.
Mr Walshe said he could not determine whether the victims were civilians or firefighters. He said identifications could not be carried out until at least Sunday.
One man, aged in his 40s, is in critical condition after suffering burns to 50 per cent of his body when he tried to move stock in the Coleraine area in the state's west.
More than 3,000 firefighters and many more residents battled major fronts at Horsham, Coleraine, Weerite, Kilmore East, Bunyip, Churchill, Dargo, Murrindindi and Redesdale in all corners of the scorched state as the searing heat in the mid 40s and high winds exceeded authorities' predictions of the worst fire conditions in the state's history.
The Kilmore region in the north and several areas of Gippsland in the east were on high alert as an uneasy dusk fell on Saturday night, while the Horsham fire was downgraded early in the evening.
Fifty houses were reportedly lost in the Bendigo area in the Redesdale blaze and up to 30 houses went up in the Kilmore fire which pushed across Whittlesea and into the town of Kinglake, northwest of Melbourne, which one resident said had gone up in flames.
"The whole township is pretty much on fire,'' Peter Mitchell told ABC Radio.
"There was was no time to do anything ... it came through in minutes.
"There'll be a massive loss of houses ... There'll be a lot of us homeless.
"All those who have made it into town will be fine. The others will be sheltering and working on their fire plans, God help them.''
Mr Mitchell said he was with around 200 residents holed up in the local pub and that no fire trucks could get into the town.
Thousands more residents in the region were sheltering wherever they could find cover as they were warned the worst was to come overnight.
A cool change early this evening did not bring any respite but, in fact, was expected to create more volatile conditions.
"It hasn't helped the firefighters, only presented them with new fronts,'' the Country Fire Authority (CFA) spokeswoman said.
The CFA and DSE (Department of Sustainability and Environment) warned Victorians to prepare to be hit by fire late tonight and to be especially prepared for ember attack.
"You should assume that as the wind change comes through, that your property could be impacted,'' CFA State Coordinator Geoff Conway said.
La Trobe Valley power stations were under threat as a fire on the eastern fringes of the Strzelecki Ranges spread toward the Gippsland coast, threatening towns such as Yarram, Langsbrough and Manns Beach.
"It is pretty well every part of the state except the far northwest,'' CFA Deputy Chief Fire Officer John Haynes said.
The Horsham fire burnt 5700 hectares and claimed at least three homes, the town's golf club and several sheds.
The Bunyip State Park reached 2400 hectares, and one at Kilmore burned 2000 hectares.
CFA deputy chief fire officer John Haynes said it would be about midnight, after the cool change had swept across the state, before fire fighters knew whether they had got on top of the blazes.
"Our guys have been flat out trying to fight the fires and trying to pin them down a bit,'' Mr Haynes said.
"The fire weather ... was extreme and off the scale.''
By 6pm, at least one house was destroyed at Coleraine in Victoria's west, in Melbourne's southeast three homes were destroyed at Lyndbrook; and north of Melbourne six houses were destroyed at Wandong and one at Whittlesea.
Homes were also lost in Labertouche, near the Bunyip State Park east of Melbourne.
"There will be more to come,'' Mr Haynes said.
Julie Venrooy said from Shady Creek, east of Melbourne, said she had been forced to stay on the Princes Highway south of Tonimbuk by police, unable to return to her home.
"I've been able to contact my husband once. He's had ember attack, that was about an hour ago but I don't know what's happened since,'' Ms Venrooy said.
Victoria Premier John Brumby said one fire threatening his parents' home in Coleraine was stopped literally on their doorstep.
"I would like to thank DSE, CFA and SES (State Emergency Services) fire fighters and volunteers who have fought tirelessly throughout the day to protect Victorian people and property,'' Mr Brumby said.
The fires came as Melbourne reached its hottest ever temperature of 46.4 degrees, while nearby Avalon recorded the state's high of 47.9.
AAP
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