Authorities in Australia are treating some fire-scorched areas as crime scenes Monday amid allegations of arson as the death toll from the blazes increased to at least 141.
Investigators say some of the hundreds of fires that tore across Victoria state may have been deliberately set. Firefighters found bodies in cars of people who had tried to flee the fast-moving fires, while others were found in their homes.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, visibly upset during a television interview Monday, reflected national disgust at the idea the fires were started by arson.
"What do you say … about anyone like that? What do you say? " Rudd said. "There's no words to describe it, other than it's mass murder."
Roughly 750 houses have been destroyed and 2,200 square kilometres of land charred by the fires, which continue to burn across Victoria and neighbouring New South Wales states.
Police have sealed off Marysville, a town destroyed by fire, telling residents who fled and news crews they could not enter because there were still bodies in the streets. Armed police moved through the shattered landscape taking notes, news photographs showed.
The town of Kinglake, north of Melbourne, was also razed by the fires. One resident, Christopher Harvey, told Reuters the charred remains of the town looked like Hiroshima, the Japanese city hit by a nuclear bomb during the Second World War.
Harvey said people were dead in their houses and animal carcasses are all over the roads.
Death toll will rise: official
Christine Nixon, the chief police commissioner of Victoria state, said Monday some areas are being treated as crime scenes and that an arson task force will likely be established. She also warned the death toll will rise.
"We're expecting that we may find more people as we gain access to different parts of where the fires have been, and we think we may well find more who have died," said Nixon.
"What we've seen, I think, is that people didn't have enough time, in some cases. We're finding [bodies] on the side of roads, in cars that crashed."
Victoria police Sr. Const. Wayne Wilson said the death toll increased to at least 141 on Monday.
"One of our leading politicians described it as hell on earth and that doesn't fall short of the mark," said Wilson.
Wilson said he's been shocked by aerial photos of the fires.
"Towns that used to exist, that don't exist anymore … everything is rubble. Nothing left," he said.
Countries offer firefighting help
Tony Bearzatto, the state duty officer with the Country Fire Association, said it's especially tough for firefighters working in their own neighbourhoods.
"Finding their neighbours and colleagues that have perished is very tragic and very difficult," he said. "We have to provide as much support to them as we can in the way of counselling."
Bearzatto said offers of help have come from around the world, including "the United States, New Zealand and other countries." He didn't specify if Canadian firefighters have offered their assistance.
Firefighters have some of the blazes under control, he said, but noted progress depends on weather conditions in the days ahead. Record high temperatures, dry bushland and high winds have helped fan the flames.
"While the temperatures are going to increase slightly, we're not looking at the severe conditions we've just had. But the wind could still create some concerns and accelerate or flare those fires up again."
Bearzatto said many fast-moving, smaller fires joined together to become larger blazes.
"They were so ferocious that you couldn't actually attack the fire directly," he said. "We put a lot of efforts into trying to protect assets, but even then it was so ferocious, you couldn't afford to get in the way."
One fire in Victoria state was as tall as a four-storey building, said Reuters.
Even though wildfires are an annual occurrence in Australia, Bearzatto said this year is especially tough.
"It's something that, of this size and magnitude, hasn't been experienced in Australia before. We have had some very large fires, but nothing as devastating as this, with the conditions that we have," he said. "It's very traumatic for everyone."
