Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Australia’s worst-ever bushfires may have killed more than 200 people, Victoria state’s Premier John Brumby said, as the search continued through the rubble of destroyed towns.

“If you visit these areas it’s just like a bomb’s gone off -- it’s like a fire and a cyclone and a hurricane have all gone through together,” Brumby told Nine Network television yesterday. People are still to be accounted for and the death toll may reach “in excess of 200,” he said.

Authorities issued an “urgent threat” yesterday for six towns near the Yea/Murrindindi blaze northeast of the state capital, Melbourne, as a southerly wind sparked more fires, said Country Fire Authority spokesman Darren Grevis-James. Some 4,000 firefighters were battling outbreaks, he added.

The weekend fires in Victoria destroyed four major towns and dozens of hamlets, razing 922 homes and leaving 4,200 people homeless, the CFA said. More than 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres) of land were devastated, it said.

The number of people confirmed dead is 181, the state police force said on its Web site, adding that the identification of victims was continuing. The deaths exceed the 71 killed when Cyclone Tracy hit the northern city of Darwin in 1974 and the 71 who died in Victoria’s Black Friday blazes of Jan. 13, 1939.

‘Bomb Blast’

“It’s just like a bomb blast, street after street is no longer there,” firefighter Drew Adamson told Melbourne radio 3AW after spending yesterday and the day before searching for bodies in destroyed homes and burned cars. “You see fireplaces and remnants of tin roofs still there and car bodies, cars that are half alight still.”

Adamson saved his neighbor’s house while his own burned to the ground. “My wife and three sons are alive --I’m one of the lucky ones,” he said.

Two weeks of record high temperatures and hot northerly gales across the southeast of Australia made conditions over the weekend worse than in February 1983, when 75 people in Victoria and neighboring South Australia died in what are known as the Ash Wednesday fires.

Some of the blazes at the weekend were deliberately lit and people found guilty of arson can expect to be jailed for 25 years, the same penalty that applies to a murder conviction in Victoria, Brumby said.

The state government will hold a royal commission into the fires, he added, with “no stone left unturned.”

Lost Everything

“We lost everything,” Debbie, who was in her living room when the fire hit her Wondong property, told radio 3AW in Melbourne. She didn’t give her family name.

“It came over the hill and just took everything,” she said. “We grabbed photos and jewelry, but we had less than 20 minutes. We nearly didn’t get out -- a few more seconds and we would have died.”

Some people didn’t see the fire “until it was lapping at their houses,” firefighter Bill Lawson told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio yesterday. “There was no way they could escape.”

Attorney-General Robert McClelland said a national early- warning telephone system may be set up to give people more time to escape.

“Many, many of those casualties occurred by people fleeing too late,” McClelland told Australia’s ABC television late on Feb. 9. “We really do need to look at our early-warning systems, whether those early-warning systems are adequate and whether they can be enhanced on a national basis.”

Rescue Centers

Some 400 volunteers are posted at rescue centers, where people left homeless are being given bedding, phones, toiletries and food, Victoria’s government said on its Web site.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who has been in the fire-hit areas for the past two days, said adults affected would each receive A$1,000 ($678), each child A$400, A$5,000 was available for funerals and A$22,000 grants would be provided for people who had lost their homes.

Contributions to victims have risen to more than A$43 million as sports stars, musicians and companies join government and individual donation efforts. Each of Australia’s four largest banks has promised A$1 million each to relief efforts, as has Woolworths Ltd. and Westfield Group.

Songwriter Leonard Cohen, who is touring Australia, plans to donate A$200,000, while a bucket collection was planned at last night’s Melbourne concert. Australia’s cricket team will contribute A$67,000 of match fees from yesterday’s game against New Zealand in Adelaide.

Wen, Obama

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao telephoned Rudd to express his condolences over the deaths and destruction caused by the fires, China’s Foreign Ministry said.

President Barack Obama called Rudd yesterday, offering “his prayers to the people of Australia and his condolences to the victims,” according to the White House.

At the same time, flood warnings were issued in Queensland state for towns at the northern tip of Australia as waters rose, causing the second flood in a week. About 41 people were housed in rescue areas after evacuations in the towns of Ingham and Halifax, the Queensland Emergency Services said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gemma Daley in Canberra at gdaley@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 10, 2009 08:00 EST