AUSTRALIA: The worst bush fires yet seen in an Australian city have left four people dead and hundreds of homes destroyed in the capital, Canberra. Firestorms that reached 80 kmph raged around the city on Saturday. The Australian Capital Territory's (ACT) Chief Minister Mr Jon Stanhope said at least 400 houses were likely to have been destroyed.
Fires sparked by lightning had been burning out of control for more than a week in forested areas on the outer edges of the ACT, as well as in neighbouring New South Wales and Victoria states, all areas dried by the region's worst drought in decades.
But a sudden rise in temperatures and gusting winds at the weekend blew the fires into Canberra's suburbs at high speeds, overwhelming the city's small firefighting capabilities.
Rejecting claims that the ACT government failed to take proper precautions against the threat, Mr Stanhope said this was a "once in a one- or two-century event" that could not have been prepared for.
"It was a holocaust of an extent that we simply did not and could not possibly have had the capacity to foresee or deal with," he told reporters.
The worst-affected area was the suburb of Duffy, where three of the deaths occurred and at least 185 houses were lost.
The three people who died in Duffy were all thought to have been trying to save their homes from the fires.
Dr Charles Guest, ACT's acting chief health officer, said that Canberra's hospitals were inundated, with over 600 people needing treatment since Saturday.
"A lot of the people presenting have minor emergency problems and then there have been the major issues, the burns that have gone to Sydney," Dr Guest said.
Of those treated, 60 people were admitted to hospital in Canberra and three people transferred to Sydney with serious burns.
As some of the thousands of people who were evacuated on Saturday returned to their homes, work continued overnight to repair the huge damage done to the capital's infrastructure by the fire.
Around 15,000 residents were still without electricity early this morning, with blackouts affecting over 30 Canberra suburbs.
One of the major tasks for authorities today is to get the city's fire-damaged sewage treatment plan operating again.
Unless the situation can be rapidly rectified there is a strong possibility that untreated waste will overflow into the Molonglo river.
Area residents have been asked to drastically restrict the amount of water they are using in showers, baths and washing machines to avoid excessive waste flooding the system.
Australia's Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, cut short a holiday to fly to Canberra yesterday.
"I have been to a lot of bush fire scenes in the time that I have been Prime Minister ... this was by far the worst," he said.
After meeting families whose homes had been completely destroyed Mr Howard said: "The morale of those people and the spirit, given the trauma through which they have gone and will go through, is quite inspiring," he said.
Mr Stanhope says the damage bill, which includes all of Canberra's public health laboratories and Australia's oldest space observatory, is expected to be hundreds of millions of dollars.
Families who have lost their homes will receive $10,000 (€5,600) in immediate assistance.
The tragedy which has befallen Canberra has not prevented at least one person seeking to take advantage of other's misfortune. ACT's chief police officer, Mr John Murray, yesterday confirmed that a man has been charged with burglary.
"We have arrested a young man for what can be described as looting ... the offence he is about to be charged with is burglary," he said.
Australia's national airline, Qantas, is offering free domestic flights to Canberra residents who have lost their homes in the fires. They are also offering discounted tickets to people who wish to visit family members in the ACT from other states.