Body search in Australian waste land after fires devastate country

Investigators were sifting through the ash for bodies as hundreds of bush fires continue to sweep through the southern state, leaving at least 181 dead and 5,000 homeless.

Thousands of acres of land have been burnt, farms and livestock obliterated, and homes razed to the ground by four-storey-high walls of flame.

Three days after the worst single day of bush fires in Australia's history, Victoria Country Fire Service said their ferocity, pace and breadth made them impossible to fight effectively.

This disaster would also rewrite the books on what is considered best practice for handling fires, they added, including the policy of allowing residents in high-risk areas to decide whether to stay or evacuate.

Disaster teams found charred bodies on roadsides and in crashed cars - signs of futile attempts to flee raging fires fed by 60mph winds, record heat and drought. Suspicion that some of the 400 blazes were lit deliberately has led police to declare crime scenes in some incinerated towns.

Fires near the state's capital Melbourne burned 1,100 square miles of land, the Victoria Country Fire Service said.

Insurance losses could be as much as £250million with the impact to the wider Australian economy estimated at up to £1billion. The police have set up a taskforce, named Operation Phoenix, to investigate how the fires had started. Police assistant commissioner Dannye Maloney promised that the team would catch the arsonists.

A spokesman for Victoria state's Country Fire Authority said more than 3,000 firefighters were continuing to battle the 25 remaining blazes today. Chief executive of the country's largest insurance firm Insurance Australia Group Michael Wilkins said it would wait until all the flames were out before putting a cost on the devastation.

"The priority is to assist customers with their immediate needs such as temporary accommodation and emergency financial assistance," he said.

The scale of the disaster shocked a nation that endures deadly firestorms every few years. Officials said the freight-train speed of the walls of flames accounted for the high death toll.

"It took everyone by surprise," said Jack Barber, who with his wife, a neighbour and five other people took refuge on a cricket field in Kinglake.

"All around was 100-foot flames ringing the oval. It was swirling all over the place. For three hours, we dodged the wind."