WANDONG - Australia's deadliest bushfire killed 84 people, as the inferno engulfed entire towns, destroying hundreds of homes and killing people as they tried to flee in cars or huddled in their homes, police said on Sunday.
"It rained fire," said one survivor, showing his singed shirt. "We hid in the olive grove and watched our house burn."
The fire storm tore through several rural towns north of Melbourne on Saturday night destroying everything in its path, forcing one family to dive into a farm reservoir to survive and others to cower in a community shed while firefighters stood between them and a wall of flames.
The remains of charred cars littered the smoldering towns on Sunday, some crumbled heaps after crashing into each other as their drivers frantically tried to escape the fire.
Police said the toll could continue to rise as they search the ruins of the wild fires and with 20 people with serious burns in hospital. Thousands of firefighters were still battling scores of fires in Victoria and New South Wales state on Sunday night. "We are just picking them up (bodies) as we go through," a police spokesman told Reuters.
The previous worst bushfire tragedy was in 1983 when 75 people were killed in the "Ash Wednesday" fires. The government put the army on standby and set up emergency relief funds, but also faced some pressure from Greens lawmakers who have been urging it to stiffen its climate-change policies to reduce the risk of more such summer disasters.
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