Kevin Rudd nearly broke down while speaking of the death toll in the Victorian bushfires. 2/09 Sky News
THE Victorian bushfire emergency will get worse before it gets better, Premier John Brumby has warned.
"We've still got fires that are not contained,'' Mr Brumby told ABC TV tonight.
"There is a huge effort to get them under control.
"Tragically, we will have more deaths later this week.''
Thirty-one fires are still burning as the death toll in Australia's worst ever bushfires climbed to 130, with 30 people alone killed in the small hamlet of Kinglake, northeast of Melbourne.
New deaths have also been reported at Flowerdale, where four people have now perished, and at Clonbinane, near Kilmore, where one person is confirmed dead.
A 33,000 hectare blaze is threatening communities including Churchill and Wron Wron in south Gippsland.
A CFA spokesman said the fire threat had increased as freshening winds picked up. Nineteen people have now been confirmed dead in the region.
Towns at risk in northeast Victoria include Beechworth, Yackandandah and Toolangai.Amid speculation some of the fires in Victoria were deliberately lit - and with reports yesterday that people were returning to relight blazes after fire crews had left an area - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said: "There are no words to describe it other than mass murder."The public response to the catastrophe has been immediate, with thousands of people donating millions of dollars to the official Red Cross relief fund. Concerned friends and relatives have also used the Herald Sun bushfire message board to post pleas for information on loved ones.
At least 750 homes have been destroyed across the state, and 3733 people have registered with the Red Cross after evacuating their properties. The number left homeless is expected to be far higher, the Red Cross said.
It was confirmed that at least four children have died, but that figure would also be expected to rise as full details emerged.
A two-year-old girl was among 13 in intensive care in hospital. Twenty-two people with shocking burns were admitted to the Alfred hospital, the state's main trauma centre, where staff ran out of morphine trying to ease patients' pain.
Most of the damage was done by two massive fires - one that virtually wiped out towns northeast of Melbourne including Kinglake and Marysville with a 100km front - and a second inferno that raced across Gippsland.
TV veteran Brian Naylor and his wife Moiree were among the dead. The pair died when the fire at Kinglake swept through their property.
Bushfire experts told news.com.au that blazes with a danger rating of 100 are considered uncontrollable. Saturday's fire had a rating of 400.
Horrific deaths
Six victims were in one car trying to outrun the inferno which swept through Kinglake in minutes. A resident said the town was littered with burnt-out cars and he believed many contained bodies.
"It's going to look like Hiroshima, I tell you, it's going to look like a nuclear bomb," he told Melbourne's Herald Sun.
His daughter told of another resident who "went to put his kids in the car, put them in, turned around to go grab something from the house, then his car was on fire with his kids in it, and they burnt".
Among the survivors, families sat in dazed disbelief, surrounded by mattresses, dogs and whatever meagre possessions they managed to gather as they fled the fires.
Some talked of friends who had lost children, brothers and sisters, kids who have lost best friends and of a woman who has not seen her husband since Saturday. They said they had no warning before daylight turned to night and their communities were enveloped in a wall of fire and smoke.
"We looked over and there was a wall of flames looking at us and everything went pitch black. There was no warning," Joanne Fisher of Kinglake said. "I've never seen anything like it in my life ... You see this on TV, it doesn't happen to you."
Arson rumours
It was believed the fire in Bendigo was caused by a cigarette, but Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon said she was sickened by the fact some other fires might have been deliberately lit.
"It makes me very angry ... to then have someone who may have lit these fires. Fires are so devastating. The injuries we are seeing. We are talking about a massive death toll."
Police had designated affected areas as crime scenes.
Victorian Premier John Brumbt said there would be a Royal Commission into the fires.
A survivor told news.com.au that arsonists should hope the police caught them first. "Watch your back, that's all I want to say to them. Watch your back, 24/7."
Teams of disaster victim identification experts were flying in from all over Australia. Extra fire crews were being sent from interstate.
Mr Kevin Rudd offered army troops to help firefighters control the fires. He and state Premier John Brumby also opened up $10 million in emergency funding yesterday.
"This is of a level of horror that few of us anticipated," he said this morning.
- With the Herald Sun and wires
Pictures: Victoria's killer bushfires
Pictures: Faces of the fire tragedy
Full coverage of the Victoria Bushfires from the Herald Sun
A memorial in pictures to bushfire victims
For coverage from the bushfire region, go to the Leader
The Australian: St Andrews | Marysville | Kinglake | Wandong
The Australian: How we cheated flames of death
How you can help the bushfire victims
TV veteran Brian Naylor killed in fire
Woman loses son, daughter and brother
Cigarette blamed for sparking fire
Latest Victorian bushfires death toll, fire threat
Interactive map of Victoria bushfires
W wyniku pożarów w rozpoczętych w sobotę (7 II) australijskim stanie Wiktoria, zginęły do tej pory 135 osób i spłonęło przynajmniej 750 domów.

Niektóre z pożarów zostały wzniecone przez podpalaczy, większość z nich ma jednak związek z niezwykłą falą upałów i rekordowo wysokimi temperaturami w Australii w tym czasie. 

Na przełomie stycznia i lutego 2009 na terenach południowo-wschodniej Australii miała miejsce fala upałów spowodowana przez bardzo wolno poruszający się wyż atmosferyczny.

W rejonie pożarów 7 lutego zanotowano najgorętszy dzień, od czasu kiedy rozpoczęto prowadzić zapiski na ten temat w 1855 – 46,4°C.

Premier Australii Kevin Rudd obiecał pomoc  dla wszystkich osób dotkniętych pożarami.