SYDNEY, Feb 8 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Australian bushfires have killed 35 people and burned hundreds of homes in the worst fire disaster in three decades, as a heatwave and strong winds sent sheets of flame racing through towns and farmland near Melbourne.
Police expect the death toll, already the worst since 75 people died in "Ash Wednesday" fires in 1983, could climb further as they search the ruins of wild fires that flared on Saturday and continued to burn north of the city on Sunday.
The government put the army on standy and set up emergency relief funds, but it also faced renewed pressure from Greens lawmakers who say it must stiffen its climate-change policies to reduce the risk of more such summer disasters.
Thousands of firefighters battled for a second straight day on Sunday to contain the blazes, which witnesses said reached four stories high, raced across the land like speeding trains and spewed hot embers as far as the horizon.
"It went through like a bullet," Darren Webb-Johnson, a resident of the small rural town of Kinglake, told Sky TV.
"The service station went, the take-away store across the road went, cylinders (exploded) left, right and center, and 80 percent of the town burned down to the ground."
Police have said they fear more than 40 people may have been killed. Many of those confirmed dead were trapped in cars trying to flee one of the infernos. State broadcaster ABC showed pictures of a small town, Marysville, razed to the ground.
Wildfires are a natural annual event in Australia, but this year a combination of scorching weather, drought and tinder-dry bush has created prime conditions for blazes to take hold -- and also raised pressure on the government's climate-change policy.
Greens leader Bob Brown, who has condemned the government's recently announced plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions as ineffectual, said summer fires would only worsen unless Australia and other nations showed more leadership on climate change.
"It's a sobering reminder of the need for this nation and the whole world to act and put at a priority our need to tackle climate change," Senator Brown said on Sunday.
The fires are around towns about 80 km (50 miles) north of Melbourne, hitting both semi-urban and rural areas. More than 20 people are being treated for serious burns, local officials said.
"These fires won't be out for some days," said a tearful John Brumby, premier of southern Victoria state, appealing for blood donors to assist medical teams aiding the burns victims.
"It's about as horrific as it could get," he added.
SATURDAY'S FIERY BLITZ
All of the deaths, confirmed and suspected, are believed by police to have been suffered on Saturday. Police say 12 were killed around Kinglake, the worst-affected area so far known.
The main Victorian bushfire had burned some 3,000 hectares of mainly national park on Saturday when temperatures soared close to 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit). Within hours, the fire had burned some 30,000 hectares after the wind changed direction.
A Strathewen resident said the town had been devastated.
"There's a lot of families in Strathewen that we haven't been able to account for," said Georgina, a caller on local radio.
"We've lost friends, and we're just waiting for more (deaths to be confirmed) -- children, loved ones."
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, visiting the burned-pout region, said there had been an appalling loss of life. "Hell and its fury have visited the good people of Victoria," he said.
bdnews24.com/md/0935 hrs.
