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.

"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 state's 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 neighbourhoods," 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 minimising 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 can't 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 US 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.

earlier related report
Heartbreak as Australian family finds home in ashes
Sifting through the ruins of his home Wednesday, it was the simple things that reduced Australian fire victim Rob Greig to tears.

"My wife's beautiful roses, gone," he said, struggling to contain his emotion. "You see what you've lost and it's just... "

The tiny Victorian town of Flowerdale is virtually unrecognisable, with hundreds of homes reduced to smoking shells by a devastating inferno on the weekend that flattened towering trees and liquefied metal.

The Greigs returned to their home of 23 years for the first time Wednesday, and were stunned not only by the destruction but also by their narrow escape.

"We evacuated to Yea when the smoke hit and 20 minutes later we heard our house was in flames," said Rob's wife, Valerie.

It was 50 C (122 F) at their home Saturday afternoon and gale-force winds were blowing, but Rob said that despite regional fire warnings he had little clue what lay in store.

"It was just horrible. No warning, nothing, it was there. All of a sudden there was just a big explosion, like a bomb," he said.

"There was smoke and embers, it was just like a rocket flying and I yelled out to my wife 'we have to go'."

It was chaos trying to get out of Flowerdale as the fire hit, Greig said, with smoke and bumper-to-bumper traffic filling the streets of the rural town northeast of Melbourne.

Leaving with just the clothes on their backs, they did not have time to stop for their beloved pets, some parrots and a terrified cat called Bonnie.

The sight of Bonnie, her white coat smeared grey with ash, darting across the rubble of their home when they returned reduced Valerie to tears. Some of Rob's prized parrots were alive but others lay dead beneath the trees.

Daughters Jess and Brooke searched through the ruins in vain for their grandmother's jewellery. "She died before Christmas and Viv left her rings in the house," explained family friend, Alison McDonald.

"The Singer's still standing!" exclaimed Jess, pointing at an apparently indestructible old sewing machine.

Standing in the ash of university textbooks, Brooke held a heap of plastic aloft. "It's your laptop!" she laughed.

McDonald also returned to Flowerdale for the first time Wednesday, to find her house of 24 years untouched.

"My husband just planted a new garden and that's gone, and the fire burned right up to the front and back doors but it's still standing," she said.

"I can't believe it and I feel embarrassed. I just wish it had gone, I feel awful. All my friends have lost their homes and it doesn't seem fair."

A teacher at the local school, McDonald said only 13 of the 34 students still had homes and she was unsure when, if ever, she would return to live in the town.

"It's so desolate, I don't know if I could move back," she said, her eyes filling with tears.

"But it doesn't matter. That's what I keep telling myself -- at least we are alive. A lot of people can't say that."

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links
Forest and Wild Fires - News, Science and Technology

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News