SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, AND LOS ANGELES — At least 130 people have died in howling wildfires in Australia, so fierce that they incinerated people trying to flee in their cars, sent towering walls of flames sweeping through small towns and sparked a new debate over whether homeowners should be allowed to stay to try to protect their property.
Police suspect arson in at least two fires that raged in the eastern part of Victoria state, and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, appearing to fight back tears, called the worst infernos in Australian history "mass murder."
"This is a level of horror that few of us anticipated," he said. Flags around the country were at half-staff.
Firefighters and distraught survivors searching through the scorched rubble of homes and other destroyed buildings discovered more bodies early today, raising the official death toll to 130. Officials feared the number might double.
The country's previous worst wildfires were on February 16, 1983, when prolonged drought dried Victoria state's eucalyptus forests to tinder that fueled scores of blazes, fanned by hot, dry winds from the north. The fires killed 83 people, including firefighters, on what Australians remember as Ash Wednesday.
At one hospital Sunday, at least 22 people were being treated, 10 of them listed in critical condition. More than 750 homes have been destroyed, and thousands of survivors are homeless.
Casualties were concentrated in an area north of Melbourne, in a region that has withered under such devastating heat and drought over recent years that residents have given their suffering a name: the Big Dry.
Temperatures soared above 105 degrees over the weekend, and as dry winds whipped up flames, firestorms erupted that were so intense, tall trees suddenly exploded in balls of fire that spewed embers high into the darkening sky.
In just a few days, thousands of overstretched firefighters have battled the roaring infernos across an area of 1,200 square miles, one of the statistics the prime minister called "numbing."
Rudd directed the army to set up emergency camps for survivors, many of whom have wandered shellshocked through the ashes of their homes, crying and calling out for missing loved ones.
Many residents who stood their ground, often armed with just garden hoses to defend their homes, were suddenly trapped by fast-moving flames.
