Police searched for arsonists in Australia's south-east Wednesday as officials defended their handling of forest fires expected to have claimed over 200 lives, dpa reported.
"If you thought back to last Friday, we all gave warnings, I gave warnings," Victoria state Premier John Brumby said. "And, the fact is, you can't cater for an evacuation of half a million people."
The official death toll from Saturday's inferno stands at 181, more than doubling the body count in the previous worst forest fires in 1983 that also burned north of Melbourne, the Victoria state capital.
Army bulldozers were out clearing the path for police forensic teams to enter hamlets cut off by smouldering trees trunks and burned-out vehicles.
Many of the dead were caught in their cars after leaving too late, prompting fire chiefs to reinforce past warnings that people must either flee the fire early or work up a plan to defend their property and stick with it.
Brumby defended the "leave early or stay and fight" policy advice against criticism that he should have ordered an evacuation of those in the path of the fire.
"That policy has served the state very, very well for the past 20 years," he said.
Victoria chief fire officer Russell Rees also insisted the right advice was given, despite Saturday's being Melbourne's hottest day on record and strong winds creating conditions for the perfect firestorm.
"People need to understand that a late departure is the most deadly," Rees said. "We've said, and it's clearly evident, fires can come without warning and very rapidly, and that you may not receive a warning and you may not have a fire truck at your front gate."
Fires are still burning north of Melbourne as householders in their path make the fateful decision to stay and fight the flames or jump in their cars and flee.
Healesville resident Paul O'Dwyer said locals were leaving rather than staying to defend their properties.
"If it gets worse, they're gone," he told national broadcaster ABC. "So everyone is pulling back this time. No one really wants to stay and face it after what happened at Kinglake and that."
Kinglake and Marysville, 100 kilometres north-east of Melbourne, have barely any buildings left standing. Altogether at least 900 houses have been lost and 350,000 hectares of forest blackened.
...