Australian Bushfires Likely To Worsen - 3 Killed In Latest Flare-up - AFP

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Cooler temperatures Monday helped thousands of firefighters battling bushfires in three Australian states but officials warned that extreme weather conditions were expected later in the week. Blazes in the southern states of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania have destroyed several homes and buildings as they burn through thousands of hectares of land. Another large bushfire is raging in Western Australia.

Two bodies were found in a burned-out car in Victoria but it was not known if they had died from the fires.

Firefighters were taking advantage of milder temperatures and lower winds to assess the fires, said Bob Brinkman of the Victorian department of sustainability and environment. "Conditions are milder now and the threat has eased," he said in a joint statement with fire officials. But he cautioned that extreme fire weather conditions lay ahead.

"Over the next two days we will be consolidating control lines, doing some more backburning and positioning ourselves ahead of the predicted hot weather on Thursday," he said. In the Victorian town of Anakie a fire covering about 6,200 hectares (15,300 acres) has destroyed at least three homes.


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http://www.terradaily.com/2006/060123031552.bdowqjpf.html

Australian bushfires raging in four states Monday claimed three lives when an adult and a child likely died when their car was overtaken by flames and a firefighter was killed in a road accident, police said. The wildfires have destroyed at least eight homes and thousands of hectares of land in the southern states of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania and in Western Australia.

Authorities have warned that the fires, despite cooler temperatures and lower winds Monday, could become more dangerous later in the week when temperatures are expected to pass 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). Police said the bodies of an adult and a child were found inside a crashed car some 220 kilometres (135 miles) west of Melbourne.

They said the crash was not likely severe enough to have caused their deaths, and the pair probably died stranded in the disabled vehicle as fire swept over them. "It appears the car... ran off the road, the fire may well have overtaken the car," local District Inspector Martin Dorman said.

Victorian police said a firefighter died when his truck overturned while tackling a separate blaze in the state's northeast. In the Victorian tourist region of the Grampians, residents were returning home to the remains of their houses which they had abandoned in the face of the fires. "The house is completely destroyed," Mount Lubra resident Jenny Hayme told ABC radio.

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http://www.terradaily.com/2006/060123075959.usdry3dm.html