Australia wildfires kill 49

UPDATED:

MELBOURNE, Australia | Massive fires raged Saturday across tens of thousands of acres in Victoria and New South Wales, killing at least 49 people and destroying more than 100 homes as temperatures topped 118 degrees Fahrenheit — among the highest readings ever recorded in the regions.

Victorian state police confirmed that the deaths occurred in a blaze northwest of Melbourne, near the towns of Kinglake, Wandong, Strathewen and Clonbinane. Six people died when they were trapped in a car near Kinglake, said Deputy Police Commissioner Kieran Walshe.

He told reporters that police suspected a number of the nine major fires had been “deliberately lit.”

The temperature in Melbourne reached 115.5 degrees — the hottest day since the Bureau of Meteorology began keeping records 150 years ago. The previous record was 114 degrees, set on Jan. 13, 1939, when bush fires struck Victoria on a day known as “Black Friday.”

Other major centers reported similar temperatures, with the town of Avalon, about 40 miles from Melbourne, recording the highest reading: 118.2 degrees.

“I’ve got a massive spreadsheet here of record maximum temperatures … the whole thing is going to have to be rewritten,” said Terry Ryan, the bureau’s senior weather forecaster.

In neighboring New South Wales, police arrested a 31-year-old man they suspected of starting a fire at Peats Ridge, in the central coastal region, which was burning out of control and threatening homes.

The state’s Rural Fire Service was monitoring six other major fires, and a total fire ban was in place in Sydney and most of New South Wales over the weekend.

Late Saturday, cooler air began sweeping up from the southwest of Victoria, which brought some relief to firefighters and residents.

Further north in Queensland, however, the extreme weather was entirely different, with flash floods sweeping through the town of Innisfail while heavy rains continued to swell already flooded rivers.

Two-thirds of Queensland has been declared a disaster area, with more than a million square miles affected by torrential rain from two recent cyclones.

More than 3,000 homes were under water, and the state’s sugar cane and cattle industries have been devastated by the downpour, with thousands of stranded cows facing starvation.