Police: Death toll in Australia fires reaches 65

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HEALESVILLE, Australia (AP) - A police spokeswoman says the death toll from wildfires that have swept Australia's southeast has risen to 65.

The toll from firestorms in southern Victoria state climbed steadily Sunday as emergency crews reached further into a huge burnt-out area.

Officials say at least 640 houses were destroyed in Saturday's blazes, and that tally was expected to rise.

Victoria state police spokeswoman Creina O'Grady said the latest death toll on Sunday evening was 65.

Australia's worst wildfire tragedy was in 1983, when 75 people were killed in two states.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

HEALESVILLE, Australia (AP)—Towering flames razed an entire town in southeastern Australia and burned fleeing residents alive in their cars, authorities said Sunday as the death toll from the country's worst fire disaster in a quarter-century reached 49.

A fire truck moves away from out of control flames from a bushfire in the Bunyip Sate Forest near the township of Tonimbuk, 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of Melbourne, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009. Walls of flame roared across southeastern Australia, razing scores of homes, forests and farmland in the sunburned country's worst wildfire disaster in a quarter century. (AP Photo)

Officials said at least 640 homes were destroyed in Saturday's inferno when searing temperatures and wind blasts produced a firestorm that swept across a swath of the country's Victoria state, where all the deaths occurred.

"Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria in the last 24 hours," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters as he toured the fire zone. "It's an appalling tragedy for the nation."

Thousands of exhausted volunteer firefighters were still battling nine uncontrolled fires Sunday in Victoria, though conditions had eased considerably. Government officials said the army would be deployed to help out, and Rudd announced immediate emergency aid of 10 million Australian dollars ($7 million).

The tragedy echoed across Australia. Leaders in other states—most of which have been struck by their own fire disasters in the past—pledged to send money and volunteer firefighters.

Underscoring Australia's size and its often-harsh landscape, thousands of residents of tropical northern Queensland state watched the blanket news coverage of the fires from homes soaked by floodwaters after weeks of drenching storms.

In Victoria, witnesses described seeing trees exploding and skies raining ash on Saturday as temperatures of up 117 F (47 C) combined with blasting winds to create furnace-like conditions.

Police said they were hampered from reaching burned-out areas to confirm details of deaths and property loss. But Victoria Police Commissioner Christine Nixon confirmed deaths at a dozen sites.

Police said they believed groups of bodies had been found in cars in at least two places—suggesting families or groups of friends were engulfed in flames as they tried to flee.

In total, 49 deaths were confirmed by Sunday evening, said police spokeswoman Leanne Quentin, and officials were still working their way into burned-out regions, meaning the toll could rise further.

Health Minister Daniel Andrews said 78 people were hospitalized with burns. Dr. John Coleridge of Alfred Hospital, one of the largest in the fire zone, said injuries ranged from scorches on the feet of people who fled across burning ground to life-threatening burns. At least three would probably die, he said.

The fires were so massive they were visible from space Saturday. NASA released satellite photographs showing a white cloud of smoke across southeastern Australia.

Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said police suspected some of the fires were set deliberately. He predicted it would take days to get all the blazes under control.

Victoria Country Fire Authority official Stuart Ord told Sky News some 460 square miles (1,190 square kilometers) had been burned by early Sunday.

Marysville, a former gold rush town that was home to about 800 people, was almost completely wiped out, witnesses said. Video taken from the air showed street after street of burned-out homes in the town, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Melbourne.

"Marysville is no more," Senior Constable Brian Cross told The Associated Press as he manned a checkpoint Sunday in nearby Healesville on a road leading into the town.

The 30 or so town residents who had not evacuated before Saturday's fire huddled on a sports field overnight to escape the flames and were brought out Sunday, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

No deaths were reported in Marysville, but police sealed off the town because they feared bodies would be found there.

Another of the hardest-hit districts was Kinglake, a normally sleepy region of farms and weekend-getaway spots, where at least a dozen people were reported killed. It was there that six bodies were found in one car.

Victoria Country Fire Service spokesman Hayden Lane said 640 houses had been confirmed destroyed—550 in the Kinglake district—and that tally was expected to rise.

Residents reported the fire tearing through the region at high speed, burning everything before it.

Temperatures in the area dropped to around 77 F (25 C) on Sunday, but along with cooler conditions came wind changes that officials said could push fires in unpredictable directions.

Dozens of fires were also burning in New South Wales state, where temperatures remained high for the third consecutive day. Properties were not under immediate threat.

Police said they detained and questioned a man in connection with a blaze but released him without charge.

Wildfires are common during the Australian summer. Government research shows that about half of the roughly 60,000 fires each year are deliberately lit or suspicious. Lightning and people using machinery near dry brush are other causes.

Australia's deadliest fires were in 1983, when blazes killed 75 people and razed more than 3,000 homes in Victoria and South Australia.

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