Wildfires killed a motorist, destroyed six houses and many smaller buildings and ravaged some 5,000 hectares of forest and farming land in Australia's drought-stricken southwest, officials said yesterday.
A 26-year-old school teacher died on Saturday as she tried to flee a farmhouse threatened by fire near the farming town of Toodyay, 85km northeast of the Western Australia state capital Perth, Country Fire Authority spokesman John Athorn said.
Her car left the road in thick smoke, crashing through fences, and her body was flung into the blaze, police and media said.
Police have not yet determined whether she died as a result of the accident or the bushfire.
Another fire near the timber-milling town of Dwellingup, 70km south of Perth, destroyed six homes on Saturday and cut the town's water supply, as well as its power and telephone communications, state government official Rick Sneeuwjagt said.
The fire was fanned by winds gusting up to 50km per hour, and spread quickly through tinder-dry forest as temperatures reached the high 40s Celsius, fire authorities said.
Firefighters had contained blazes around both towns by yesterday, they said.
SUSPECTED ARSON
Authorities suspected that the Dwellingup fire may have been deliberately started, and police arson squad detectives were ready to investigate the scene of the fire yesterday, state Fire and Emergency Services spokesman Phil Cribb told reporters.
"Attending police at the fires believe some of them have been suspicious as to their cause, particularly with the loss of property," police spokesman Inspector Trevor Davis said.
"The arson squad has been assigned to investigate the cause of the fires," he said.
More than 250 firefighters were yesterday battling the blaze which is no longer believed to pose a threat to property.
Australia's current summer wildfire season is one of the most destructive on record, with most of the country gripped by its worst drought in a century.
The wildfires in four areas surrounding Perth prompted officials to issue a smoke alert for the city after thick haze blanketed the sky.
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