Fresh arson attacks suspected as Australian fires rage

Victoria state Premier John Brumby said there was "little doubt" that fires had been deliberately lit overnight in the state where at least 181 people -- and possibly more than 200 -- died in blazes at the weekend.Â

 

"I think words escape us all when it comes to describing that deliberate arson," he said.

 

State police commissioner Christine Nixon said investigators were closing in on an arsonist blamed for lighting a fire in the Gippsland region, in the states east, which killed about 20 people.

 

As police continue the largest arson investigation in Australia’s history, firefighters raised concerns about looters picking through the remains of abandoned properties in a disaster zone about the size of Luxembourg.

 

"We have had some reports of looting and certainly some (firefighting) volunteers and citizens who have told us that they have seen strange people in their neighborhoods," Nixon said.

 

Thousands of firefighters are battling to save communities still threatened by 23 wildfires raging across farms and tinder-dry bushland in the southeast of the country.

 

Country Fire Authority (CFA) Deputy Chief Fire Officer Steve Warrington said fires near Bunyip and Kinglake could merge and threaten more towns in the Yarra Valley northeast of Melbourne if fanned by forecast northerly winds.

 

"There is a huge effort going on minimizing the impact of that fire as we speak," Warrington told the Australian Associated Press.

 

Stunned residents were beginning to be allowed through crime scene lines to see for themselves what remained of towns such as Kinglake and Flowerdale, which were caught up in Saturday’s inferno.

 

"My house is still standing, I cant believe it, and I feel embarrassed," said Flowerdale resident Alison McDonald, who evacuated as the town was engulfed in flames at the weekend.

 

"I have a huge sense of guilt. Why me? I just wish it had gone, I feel awful."

 

But there was also anger from residents of other communities that remained off-limits.

 

Premier Brumby said he understood residents desire to return to their towns but warned that the horrific scenes in places such as Marysville were simply too gruesome for survivors to see.

 

"You can imagine if people return to those areas and they return to a house... and there are still deceased persons there, the trauma of this and the impact would be quite devastating," he told Sky News.

 

In the town of Marysville, flattened by the flames at the weekend, up to 100 of its 500 or so residents are now believed to have been killed, officials said. Police were going through the town house-by-house.

 

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the fires had left 500 people injured, more than 1,000 homes destroyed and 450,000 hectares (1.1 million acres) burnt. More than 5,000 people have been left homeless.

 

There was also fury at "bureaucratic crap" from officials demanding photo identification and bank statements from victims seeking emergency aid, prompting an apology from Rudd.

 

Gary Hughes, a journalist at The Australian newspaper who lost his home and narrowly escaped the fires, wrote an open letter to Rudd lambasting federal officials over the demands.

 

"What’s that meant to be, Kevin, some cruel joke?" he wrote.

 

A police spokesman meanwhile said there was no suspicion the arsonists were Islamic terrorists, after reports last year that a group of extremists had urged Muslims to light bushfires as a weapon in "holy war."

 

"None at all, absolutely nothing, zero," Superintendent Ross McNeill told AFP.

 

Offers of help have poured in from around the world, with leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama telephoning Rudd to offer condolences and support.
Question time in the House of Representatives was suspended for the rest of the week in recognition of the disaster.

 

The only other occasion parliament has sat for a week without question time was during World War II, said lawmaker Joe Hockey.