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CANBERRA - Fires raging out of control in Victoria were late yesterday threatening to cross the border into New South Wales, forcing the evacuation of a ski resort and urgent aircraft searches for hikers and campers in heavily wooded mountains.
And as the fire crisis prepared to enter its 49th day this morning weather forecasters warned of yet another week of the heatwave that has driven temperatures into the high 30s and 40s.
Flames sparked by lightning and driven by seering winds have already incinerated more than a million hectares of Victoria, claiming eight houses - and possibly more - in the past two days, and causing an electricity blackout that shut down Melbourne and other towns and cities for hours on Tuesday.
With firefighters called to almost 60 outbreaks yesterday and much of the state's alpine region a continuing inferno, Victorian Premier Steve Bracks warned of worse to come.
"When I came back in [from a truncated holiday] this morning and had the briefing and learned that Saturday was going to be worse than yesterday, it just sends shivers up your spine because we all saw how bad yesterday was," he told a media conference.
"I think it will go down as one of our worst bushfire episodes in Victoria ever, and that's saying something in the state that had the 1939 fires, the 1983 fires and even the 2002-03 fires."
The 1939 Black Friday inferno killed 71 people and razed two million hectares, 75 died in Victoria and South Australia in the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires, and 1.3 million hectares of alpine bushland was destroyed in the 2002-03 outbreaks.
Major towns and cities were hammered late on Tuesday afternoon when a transmission line bringing electricity from NSW automatically shut down to protect itself from a fire raging through forest at Tatong, south of Benalla.
The shutdown cut off about 20 per cent of Victoria's total power supply, instantly blacking out much of Melbourne, the southern port city of Geelong, and northern and eastern areas of the state.
As temperatures hovered at about 40C, Melbourne was thrown into chaos: hundreds of traffic lights shut down, and train and tram services were severely hit just as the city began its evening rush hour.
About 200,000 homes lost power, shopowners feared massive losses in perishable goods as refrigeration collapsed, railway and security boom gates were locked down, electrically-operated security systems shut many people in apartment blocks, and dozens of people were trapped in elevators.
Medical clinics frantically rushed to save supplies of vaccines throughout the city, and staff at Melbourne's Sunshine Hospital ran to buy 80 fans from a nearby hardware store to keep new mothers and their babies cool as air conditioning failed.
Power was restored to most areas by 9pm and yesterday the state Government decided against proposed bans on air conditioners - for the time being.
The fire that shut down the transmission line was last night still burning out of control after destroying seven homes, despite relentless attacks from hundreds of firefighters and water-bombing aircraft.
More small settlements continue to be under threat.
At Thredbo ski resort near the Victorian border, authorities yesterday evacuated as many as 1000 holidaymakers, warned residents to prepare for the worst, and shut down Kosciusko National Park.
And the towns of Tambo Crossing, Brookville and Doctors Flat in Gippsland's Great Dividing Range were late yesterday under siege from spot fires caused by a massive blaze that has been burning there since the start of December.
