Australia Burns..Our worst ever natulal disaster..

[okosh]

After 2 weeks of 43-45(115F) we now have the worst bush fires ever....

Toll @ 6AM Monday....

107 Dead
750 Homes
40 Schools




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Deadly inferno -fires claim 107 lives
Updated: 13:08, Monday February 9, 2009

The death toll from the Victorian bushfires has reached 107 and authorities warn the number of fatalities is likely to rise even further.

The toll from Australia's deadliest natural disaster had reached 107 as at 6am (AEDT) on Monday, authorities said.

At least 750 homes have been destroyed and more than 330,000ha burnt out, while authorities said some fires could take weeks to contain.

Country Fire Authority (CFA) state duty officer Mark Glover said the toll could still climb further.

The death toll surpasses that from the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires, in which 75 people died in Victoria and South Australia, and the Black Friday bushfires of 1939, which killed 71.

According to police figures, another 11 people were found dead at Kinglake West, north of Melbourne, taking that community's toll to 20 while another four bodies were found at Marysville taking that town's toll to eight.

Only one building was left standing at Marysville after the inferno swept through on Saturday.

A CFA spokesman said 31 fires are still raging throughout the state with five - at Beechworth, Churchill, Murrindindi, the Kinglake complex and Bunyip - causing the most concern.

DSE spokesman Geoff Russell said conditions had improved from the weekend with a cooler change coming through with moist air.

A southerly wind is pushing fires in a north to northeasterly direction.

'Our biggest concern at the moment is around Beechworth,' Mr Russell said.

The fire has skirted Beechworth, in the state's northeast, and is heading towards Yackandandah.

'There are seven or eight small settlements in the path of this fire and those residents have been urged to get their fire plans underway,' Mr Russell said.

The Beechworth blaze has burnt 30,000ha and continues to threaten the communities of Stanley, Bruarong, Dederang, Gundowring, Gundowring Upper, Kancoona, Kancoona South, Coral Bank, Glenn Creek and Running Creek.

All fire-devastated areas will be treated as crime scenes to determine if arson was involved, Victorian Police Commissioner Christine Nixon said on Monday.

Ms Nixon said forensic investigators had begun work in the Churchill region, where police suspect arson was involved.

'At this stage we have a team at the fire at Churchill in the Gippsland Valley, which is certainly one that we believe was deliberately lit,' Ms Nixon told the Seven Network.

'Our fire experts and our own investigators have suggested that the way that it happened, how fast that it happened, that there is good evidence to believe that it was lit.'

Forensic investigators have also begun work in the Kinglake area.

'They're where the most deaths are, but wherever a death has occurred we investigate that as a crime,' Ms Nixon told ABC Radio.

The Queen has expressed shock at the devastating bushfires that have torn through southern Australia.

'I was shocked and saddened to learn of the terrible toll being exacted by the fires this weekend,' the Queen said in a statement.

'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.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown earlier called his Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd to say the UK was ready to help after the bushfire disaster.

Most of the deaths have occurred in the largest blaze, in the Kinglake region, that has cut a vast swath across the central highlands from Wandong, south to Kinglake and nearby Saint Andrews, and northeast towards the upper Goulburn Valley.

One fire official said the blaze now had a perimeter extending 'hundreds of kilometres' and may take weeks to contain.

The Kinglake fire, which sprawls across 220,000ha - about two-thirds of the area destroyed by fires across Victoria - has all but consumed towns including Kinglake and Marysville.

Former Nine Network Melbourne newsreader Brian Naylor, 78, and his wife Moiree were among the people who died at tiny Kinglake West as the flames swept in on Saturday.

Ninety-two firefighters from Tasmania will arrive to help the firefighting effort on Monday morning, in addition to the 150 NSW firefighters currently helping fight the Beechworth fires.

Nearly 40 schools in West Gippsland, central and South Gippsland are closed due to fire.

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/article.aspx?id=301387