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Bushfires that raged across southern Australia this weekend killing 108 people, destroying 750 homes and decimating whole towns, have been described as “hell on earth” and are threatening to become the worst fire disaster in the country’s history. Victoria is ablaze with 26 fires which continued to burn today amid record-breaking temperatures after leaving a trail of death and devastation across the state on Saturday.

The Australian Army has been called into assist the thousands of weary firefighters who have been battling the blazes over the past 24 hours, and the government has announced a $10 million (£4.5 million) emergency relief fund to help the thousands of Victorians now left homeless.

The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd toured the worst-affected areas, offering support to people who had lost everything, and was even a shoulder to cry on for one devastated man.

“Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria in the last 24 hours,” Mr Rudd said.

“And many good people now lie dead.”

The Victorian Premier John Brumby said it was one of the “darkest days in Victoria’s history” and described the deadly inferno as “hell on earth”.

The death toll stands at 108, however there are fears it will rise as many people are still missing in the badly burnt areas. 18 people remain in critical condition in hospital with burns and other life-threatening injuries.

750 homes have so far been confirmed lost, with 550 in the area of Kinglake and Kinglake west, about 50kms north-east of Melbourne, where many of the deaths occurred.

Other fire-affected areas include the regional city of Bendigo, in central Victoria, and the town of Marysville in the Yarra Valley, which has been completely destroyed, with only one building left standing.

Nine people died in a fire at Churchill in the Gippsland region in Victoria's east, which has left a footprint covering 90,000 hectares. Six people died in an horrific car crash at Kinglake while they tried to out-run the blaze.

Witnesses have told of trees "exploding" with the intensity of the heat and recounted seeing burned-out cars abandoned as their owners scrambled to reach safety.

Strathewen resident Mary Avola escaped the flames but her husband of 43 years, Peter, died after they fled their home in separate cars trying to reach a nearby sporting oval.

"He was behind me in another car. He was behind me for a while and we tried to reach the oval but the gates were locked," Avola told Melbourne's Herald Sun website.

"He just told me to go and that's the last time I saw him." Authorities have found his body.

Marie Jones, who was visiting Kinglake, where about 12 people perished, told Melbourne’s The Age newspaper that a badly-burnt man had arrived at the property where she was staying with his baby daughter, and told her his wife and other child had been killed.

"He was so badly burnt. ... his little girl was burnt, but not as badly as her dad, and he just came down and he said `Look, I've lost my wife, I've lost my other kid, I just need you to save [my daughter]'," Ms Jones told the newspaper.

As the Prime Minister announced the emergency bushfire relief fund and the support of the Army, other Australian states banded together with Victoria, with the Premiers of South Australia and New South Wales offering to send firefighters and equipment across the border.

Mr Brumby said the Army would be “providing logistics and support”.

“That will tend to be in terms of fuel, logistic support, dozers, some personnel and they will help control what is a very difficult situation,” Mr Brumby said.

Several of the fires are believed to have been deliberately lit, and arsonists are hampering firefighting efforts with some blamed for re-lighting fires that had already been extinguished.

On Saturday the temperature reached 46.4C - Victoria’s hottest day on record. However conditions look set to improve as temperatures have already cooled across most of the state.

There are fears this weekend’s deadly bushfires could become the worst than the Ash Wednesday bushfires which claimed 76 lives when they tore through Victoria and South Australia in February, 1983.

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