KEY POINTS:
Australia awakes this morning after one of the darkest weekends in its history, with at least 84 people killed, hundreds more left homeless, entire towns razed, untold livestock and wildlife incinerated and fires that continue to burn.
The stories of tragedy as scalding winds drove massive walls of
fire at unimagined speed through farms and into towns have numbed even a nation accustomed to such disasters.
A family died in their car as they tried to flee to safety; a woman lost her husband in the chaos of sudden destruction after he left her side for a moment; survivors wrapped in blankets stumbled through the smoking ruins of one town, looking for relatives and friends but fearing the worst.
The tales of heroism have yet to emerge. But they will. Hundreds of volunteers placed themselves between homes and families and sheets of flames, 30m high or more, racing through trees and across grassland, hurling fireballs ahead of them as they came.
"We are as a nation so grateful to the firefighters, police and the huge band of volunteers who are engaged in Herculean efforts to save homes and lives," Governor-General Quentin Bryce said. "Our country will thank them when the time is right."
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, sending in troops to join volunteers pouring in from New South Wales and South Australia, and announcing a A$10 million federal relief fund, was horrified at the scale of destruction.
"This is an appalling loss of life, an appalling loss of property" he told ABC radio. "This is a terrible and devastating tragedy."
In Melbourne, Victorian Premier John Brumby choked back tears as he prepared the state for worse news as emergency teams reached areas cut off by fires that devastated thousands of hectares, preventing even paramedics reaching the injured.
"This is not over yet. I think there will be more bad news. It's a tragic day. A tragic weekend in our history. The impacts on families are just devastating. I feel devastated."
Late yesterday fires still threatened homes in a number of towns, and burning embers flying in strong winds endangered others. In some areas fire authorities warned that residents could not rely on units reaching their properties.
And as refugees emerged, and reports came in from emergency units struggling through dense black smoke and towns turned to charnel houses, stories of salvation, grief and loss gave human faces to a steadily rising toll.
Almost the entire town of Marysville, northeast of Melbourne, has been turned to rubble and ash. The alpine town, built along the Steavenson River that flows from the heavily forested Great Dividing Range and its 300-year-old trees, was razed as flames from two fires merged and tore down upon it in a holocaust that also destroyed dozens of homes in other towns and consumed 100,000ha of grass and bush.
Two died in Marysville.
Yesterday afternoon buses arrived to convoy the townspeople to safety, picking them up from Gallipoli Park where they had been gathered, protected, and fed by Red Cross and other volunteers.
But ABC reporter Jane Cowan, who was among the first to see the devastation yesterday, reported that the town had virtually ceased to exist.
"We were in the main street and it's ... like a war zone, like a bomb has been dropped on the entire township," she said. "People there are in an absolute state of shock.
"Most people had already left, but the people - I'd say about 30 people that are still left and had spent the night sheltering on the football oval there - are just completely dazed.
"They are walking around the streets with rugs on their shoulders because it's actually getting cold here now, if you can believe it.
"And they tell stories of how fast everything turned bad there ...
"People are talking about sheltering in their homes, seeing every single house in their street go up in flames in a row, one by one, of narrow escapes, houses that managed to survive ...
"There are stories of households that sheltered three families in one house, of gas bottles from nearby houses exploding and then piercing their house, and then those houses catching fire as well."
To the west, nestled in a national park, Kinglake, Kinglake West, St Andrews, Arthur Creek and Strathewen suffered an appalling toll - 18 confirmed dead, caught by flames racing at unbelievable speed and trapped as they tried to escape.
Firefighter Richard Hoyle described the "holocaust" he saw as he fought his way into the area: at least two dozen incinerated cars, smashed in multiple collisions or simply abandoned.
"The road is riddled with burned-out cars involved in multiple collisions and debris," he told the Herald-Sun.
"Trees on the side of the road are still burning and just falling all over the road. There is really nothing left."
Kinglake man Jim Scott told Channel Nine of the wind that had driven flames at a breakneck pace, killing several in the little cluster of villages that make up the town.
"The horrific wind came through and just took the roof off our house, our shed," he said.
"I've never seen anything like it."
Fellow resident Sue Aldred told Channel Nine the fire was horrible and terrifying: "All of a sudden we were in a raging inferno. There was coloured smoke and the noise was indescribable - it was terrifying ... I did fear for my life at one point. There was a horrible moment of indecision where I just thought, 'I'm going to stay here and beat this flame back, and where do I hide? Which building do I hide in?"'
Peter Mitchell said the town had no time to prepare: "It came through in minutes."
In nearby Strathewen, Mary Avola told the Herald-Sun her husband, Peter, had died.
"He was behind me for a while and we tried to reach the oval but the gates were locked. He just told me to go and that's the last time I saw him."
Another survivor told ABC radio she feared the toll might rise.
"It's just absolute devastation and people have seen things today that have been absolutely horrific," she said.
"There're a lot of families in Strathewen that we haven't been able to account for. The school's gone, the hall's gone - some people left it too late. We've lost friends, and we're just waiting for more ... children, loved ones."
This morning, as Australia mourns the dead, it fears the toll might rise.
