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New Zealand police officers helping to identify victims of the Victoria bushfires in Australia have described the devastation as "mindblowing".
The Disaster Victim Identification team (DVI) arrived in Victoria on February 11 and had been working in the worst-hit townships of Kinglake and Marysville.
Senior Sergeant Richard McPhail of Invercargill, who is leading the team of six, said he had never seen anything like the scenes from the fires, which have killed 189 people and destroyed at least 1834 homes.
"There are scenes of absolute devastation - it is mindblowing." he said.
"I was in Thailand after the 2004 tsunami but this is different. The fire has taken everything away. Marysville has been wiped off the map."
Mr McPhail said the officers had been working up to 13 hours a day.
" The team has been supporting each other and reflecting on the scenes we've faced," he said.
"The local people are also very appreciative of us being here - one man was amazed when he saw the New Zealand Police insignia on our uniforms."
They were now working in Melbourne, assisting Victoria Coronial Services.
"This reconciliation work is all about what we do - matching evidence like DNA with identities. It allows us to reunite victims with their loved ones and is the most satisfying aspect of the job."
Also helping to identify victims of the fires are two New Zealand specialists in forensic dentistry - Hugh Trengrove of Wellington and Zafer Khouri of Hamilton - who were both involved in victim identification following the 2004 tsunami.
Four New Zealand Police victim recovery dogs and their handlers were also working around Kinglake and Marysville, alongside dog teams from Victoria Police.
Meanwhile, 51 national rural fire officers and five Defence Force firefighters were battling blazes Victoria.
The firefighters had been sent in to help fight a fire in the Yarra state forest - backcountry to the north of the area where the firestorm last week destroyed several towns.
A spokesman for the contingent, Alan Thompson, said the group was working a 12-hour shift using dry firefighting techniques in the mainly eucalypt forest - cutting and scraping firebreaks into the forest with handtools and backburning sections in a controlled manner to remove fuel for the fires.
Mr Thompson said the group would work seven days of 12-hour shifts, followed by two days off, then another week of 12-hour shifts before returning to New Zealand.
A second deployment of New Zealand firefighters could be brought in after three weeks.
- NZPA
