<i>New arson attacks suspected as Australian fires rage</i>

The frame (C) of twin chairs protrude from the ruins of the home where John and Sue Wilson died in the town of Mudgeegonga on February 10. Inset picture shows a resident showing the burnt remains of her computer at her home in Flowerdale, Melbourne. Right, Valerie Greig is reunited with her cat Bonny, found in the remains of their burnt-out home in the township of Flowerdale which lies in ruins after the bushfires decimated the small community some 100 kilometres north of Melbourne yesterday.Photo: AFP

Australian police investigated fresh arson attacks and looting yesterday as angry survivors pressed for access to towns devastated by wildfires that continue to burn across vast areas.
Victoria state Premier John Brumby said there was "little doubt" that fires had been deliberately lit overnight in the state where at least 181 people -- and possibly more than 200 -- died in blazes at the weekend.
"I think words escape us all when it comes to describing that deliberate arson," he said.
State police commissioner Christine Nixon said investigators were closing in on an arsonist blamed for lighting a fire in the Gippsland region, in the state's east, which killed about 20 people.
As police continue the largest arson investigation in Australia's history, firefighters raised concerns about looters picking through the remains of abandoned properties in a disaster zone about the size of Luxembourg.
"We have had some reports of looting and certainly some (firefighting) volunteers and citizens who have told us that they have seen strange people in their neighbourhoods," Nixon said.
Thousands of firefighters are battling to save communities still threatened by 23 wildfires raging across farms and tinder-dry bushland in the southeast of the country.
Country Fire Authority (CFA) Deputy Chief Fire Officer Steve Warrington said fires near Bunyip and Kinglake could merge and threaten more towns in the Yarra Valley northeast of Melbourne if fanned by forecast northerly winds.
"There is a huge effort going on minimising the impact of that fire as we speak," Warrington told the Australian Associated Press.
Premier Brumby said he understood residents' desire to return to their towns but warned that the horrific scenes in places such as Marysville were simply too gruesome for survivors to see.
"You can imagine if people return to those areas and they return to a house... and there are still deceased persons there, the trauma of this and the impact would be quite devastating," he told Sky News.
Meanwhile, some residents of towns scorched off the map by the worst ever wildfires returned to their homes for the first time yesterday and found scenes of utter devastation.
"Where do you start? Where do you start?" said Peter Denson, standing blank-faced amid the ruins of his home in Kinglake, where at least 39 people were killed and the town all but destroyed in Saturday's inferno.
Denson, a carpenter, has lived in Kinglake since 1977. He said he wants to rebuild, but his house, now a blackened pile of timber, bricks and twisted metal, was not insured because he could not afford it.
"It's like a big atom bomb has gone off," said Denson.
Authorities had sealed off some towns because the grim task of collecting bodies from collapsed buildings was proceeding slowly and because they wanted to prevent residents from disturbing potential crime scenes. Embers were still posing a threat of flare-ups.
While there is free access to many areas in the fire zone, tensions have been rising in recent days as demands rose for police to let residents back to the worst-hit places to check on their homes and check on pets and other animals left behind. Police urged people to be patient.
The official death toll stood at 181 yesterday, but bodies were still being collected and Brumby said it would "exceed 200 deaths."
Of the other five fire sources, four were not suspicious and one was still being investigated. An estimated 60,000 fires burn each year in Australia, most of which are lit accidentally or by lightning strikes or power lines.
Australia's top law officer, federal Attorney General Robert McLelland, said yesterday anyone found guilty of lighting a fire that caused multiple deaths would face life in prison if convicted.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told the Seven Network late Tuesday "they should be allowed to rot in jail."
Victoria's Chief Commissioner of police, Christine Nixon, said there had been reports of suspicious behavior amid the destruction.
Residents were allowed to return to Kinglake, about 130 kilometres north of Melbourne, but their progress was slow because emergency workers were still removing burned debris and cutting down trees that appeared ready to fall. Power lines the electricity supply long cut were strewn across some streets.
More information emerged Wednesday indicating just how extreme Saturday's conditions were. The Bureau of Meteorology said Saturday's high temperature of 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46.4 Celsius) in Melbourne shattered the city's record of 114 F set on Jan. 13, 1939 a day known as Black Friday for wildfires that killed 71 people.
Fire authorities said the official tally of houses destroyed was more than 1,000. Some 5,000 people are homeless, and 2,850 square kilometers of land has been scorched.