Search for bodies as wildfires rage across Australian island

Acting Police Commissioner Scott Tilyard said no casualties had yet been reported, but it would take time before officials were certain that no-one had died in blazes that have razed 50,000 acres of forests and farmland across southern Tasmania since Friday.

Police have concerns for about 100 people reported missing.

Mr Tilyard said 11 teams were searching ruins in places including the small town of Dunalley, east of the state capital of Hobart, where school and around 70 homes were destroyed.

Further searces were due to be made in the Murdunna and Sommers Bay areas.

“Until we’ve had the opportunity to do all the screening that we need to do at each of those premises, we can’t say for certain that there hasn’t been a human life or more than one human life lost as a result of these fires,” he said.

Three fires continued to burn out of control in southern Tasmania and in the north west yesterday.

Prime minister Julia Gillard, who flew to Tasmania, said help would be given to those in need including emergency payments.

She warned that New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, was about to move into a period of extreme heat when the wildfire risk would be high.

“We live in a country that is hot and dry and where we sustain very destructive fire periodically,” she said.

“Whilst you would not put any one event down to climate change ... we do know over time that as a result of climate change we are going to see more extreme weather events and conditions.”

New South Wales Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said more than 90 wildfires were blazing across the state yesterday and warned that conditions would worsen.

No homes were currently under threat.

“It is going to be very hot and very dry.

“Couple that with the dryness of the vegetation, the grassland fuels, the forest fuels and those strong winds that are expected,” he said.

The temperature across much the state was expected to reach 45C (113F) while winds were expected as high as 50mph. A total ban on lighting fires in the state has been imposed.

Weather forecasters last week warned thick vegetation which has grown following several years of heavy rain could increase the risk of wildfire.

Wildfires are common during the Australian summer.

In February 2009, hundreds of fires across Victoria state killed 173 people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes.

Meanwhile a British man has died after falling from a waterfall in Australia.

The 20-year-old was walking with friends in the Blue Mountains, near Sydney, when he slipped in water and fell over the edge of Wentworth Falls, police said.

Police, paramedics and rescue teams were called and the man, who has not been named, was declared dead at the scene.

The man was on holiday in Australia at the time, New South Wales Police said.

He was in a group of eight friends and had travelled from Sydney’s Bondi area to the Blue Mountains for a picnic and a walk along a marked trail through the bush.

It is not believed the group of friends were part of an organised tour.

His family and the British 
Consulate in Australia were 
notified of his death, Australian police have confirmed and a report will be prepared for the coroner.