Australian wildfire danger looms for months: officials

The wildfire emergency in Australia that has killed more than 200 people will continue until early April if dry conditions persist in the nation's parched southeast, officials said Tuesday.

As 3,500 firefighters took advantage of milder weather to try to contain six fires raging across Victoria state, the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) warned the reprieve was temporary.

"There's no room for complacency," DSE spokesman Stuart Ord told AFP.

Ord said the deadly combination of searing temperatures and high winds that whipped up the firestorms that claimed 210 lives and razed entire towns on the weekend of February 7 could return at any time.

Firefighters had a scare on Monday, when flames threatened dozens of communities to the northwest and east of the southern state's capital Melbourne, Australia's second largest city.

Ord said the fires were expected to intensify again on Friday and emergency workers were racing to prepare for the threat.

"This is how it will be until late March-early April unless we get some rain," he said.

"We've just had the driest January on record in Victoria with virtually no rain all year -- combine that with a 13-year drought and the forest floors and bush are tinder dry."

Officials on Tuesday released revised figures showing 2,029 homes were destroyed in the fires, up from 1,800 previously, with more than 6,000 insurance claims lodged, totalling 775 million dollars (504 million US).

Some 450,000 hectares (1.1 million acres) have been burned out in Victoria since the fire season began in November.

Firefighters have little hope of extinguishing the massive blazes, which can stretch for more than one hundred kilometres (62 miles), instead pursuing a policy of containment where they concentrate on saving lives and property.

Ord said a worst case scenario would be a repeat of the conditions on February 7, which created a perfect firestorm that destroyed all in its path.

On that day, dubbed "Black Saturday" in Australia, temperatures hit a record 46.4 degrees Celsius (115.5 Fahrenheit) and 80 kilometre (50 mile) an hour winds sent firestorms racing through towns.

Ord said the winds sent burning embers up to 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) through the air, sparking spot fires and making the blazes impossible to control.

"We've been dealing with conditions this summer that experienced firefighters have never seen before," he said.

The next major challenge would come on Friday, when temperatures will reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) with wind gusts of 50 kilometres (31 miles) an hour, Ord said.

"We have to hit the fires with all we have before then and get our containment lines in," he said.

Country Fire Authority chief Russell Rees said his firefighters, the vast majority of them volunteers, would attempt to "round up" and secure as many fires as possible.

"We have to do our very best to manage both the fatigue amongst our crew but keep going hard enough so we can contain these fires and prepare for Friday," Rees said.