10 February,2009 06:46 AM IST | | PTI
At least 170 people have died and hundreds more have been injured in raging bushfires in Australia that devoured the southeastern state of Victoria even as police suspect the biggest inferno in the country's history was "deliberately" set.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced an aid package of A$10m
There are fires still raging throughout Victoria after record heat and wild winds set the state ablaze on Saturday that wiped out families and left behind a legacy of charred homes, bodies and shattered townships.
As PM Kevin Rudd pledged to "re-build" the communities in the aftermath of the worst peacetime disaster, which he described as "hell's fury", heartache led to anger amid speculation that the firestorm has been deliberately lit, the Australian reported today.
"What do you say about anyone like that - there are no words to describe it other than mass murder," Rudd said after police revealed some were set by arsonists and declared all fire-devastated areas to be treated as crime scenes.
Describing it as the "level of horror that few of us anticipated", Rudd said, "..I say this to the people of Victoria - Australia is with you and we're going to rebuild these communities with a combined national effort."
Victoria State Premier John Brumby has announced that a royal commission will examine all policies on dealing with fires, which have destroyed more than 750 houses and burnt 850 square miles of land.
The grim tally amounts to at least three times the number of lives lost in both the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983 and the Black Friday fires of 1939.
"The weekend's blazes are likely to have destroyed almost 1000 houses. They wiped two whole towns - Marysville and Narbethong - off the map and left the town of Kinglake decimated, as well as claiming more than 100 lives," the Australian quoted Brumby as saying.
As troops and firefighters struggled to douse the flames, Victoria state's Country Fire Authority issued a series of alerts warning of possible flare-ups across the southeast state.
Towns on urgent alert include Stanley, Bruarong, Dederang, Gundowring, Gundowring Upper, Kancoona, Kancoona South, Coral Bank, Glen Creek and Running Creek.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister said he had received offers of help from the British and New Zealand prime ministers and would be taking up the offer of 100 firefighters from New Zealand.
He said 600 army temporary accommodation units would be provided to house those left homeless by the fires while Centrelink would be making immediate cash payments to fire victims. Australians donated more than USD 8.8 million in less than 24 hours to bushfire-ravaged communities in Victoria.
