HEALESVILLE, Australia — The high death toll from hundreds of wildfires across southeastern Australia has forced authorities to re-examine an accepted survival strategy when blazes threaten: Get out early or hunker down and fight.
Many people waited too long and perished as they tried to escape the weekend infernos.
“People need to understand that a late departure is the most deadly,” said Paul Rees, chief of Victoria’s Country Fire Authority.
Recovery teams moving into burned-out towns in Victoria state found charred bodies on roadsides and in wrecked cars — grim signs of futile attempts to flee the raging wildfires fed by 62 mph winds, record heat and drought. The number of deaths was expected to surpass 200, and a few fires were still burning.
“The clear evidence is that the most dangerous place to be is on the road,” Rees told reporters Tuesday.
The scale of the disaster has shocked a nation that endures deadly firestorms every few years.
Authorities defended their preparations and actions during the fires that swept southeastern Australia on Saturday, saying the extreme weather conditions made catastrophe almost inevitable.
But they agreed that the “stay and defend” policy, under which homeowners remain to protect their properties from fire, needed to be reviewed.
“It is the application of that policy and a lack of an alternative that we need to work on,” Rees said.
Evacuation is not mandatory in high-risk areas, and Australia’s wildfire services largely are composed of volunteers who lack the resources to protect every home.
In Victoria, there is no formal alert system to warn of approaching wildfires, although the Country Fire Authority distributes advice and updates on its website and through radio broadcasts.
Victoria state Premier John Brumby said he had asked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to consider setting up a national emergency fire- warning system months ago.
But officials agree that in the worst conditions, the direction and intensity of fires can change so quickly that sirens, e-mails and other warning systems are not effective.
The wildfires outside Melbourne — Australia’s second-largest city — destroyed more than 750 homes, left 5,000 people homeless and burned 1,100 square miles of land, the fire authority said.
While the official death toll stood at 181 Tuesday evening, Brumby said there were an additional 50 bodies that the coroner had not identified and were not included in the official tally.
