I got this in todays paper
Police are closing in on a suspected arsonist they believe lit one of Victoria's bushfires and residents are bracing for further threats as fire crews scramble to contain Australia's worst- ever disaster.
Fears are now growing that as many as 300 people may have perished.
Crime Department Assistant Commissioner Dannye Moloney is close to releasing an identikit picture of a suspected arsonist who is believed to have been in the Churchill area of Gippsland just days before last Saturday's inferno.
"There are suspicious fires out there," Mr Moloney said.
"The Churchill fires, as far as we can conclude at this stage, must be considered as suspicious and that is being investigated as we speak.
"All the other fire sites are obviously slowly but surely being investigated by our arson experts and as the reports come in and as they go through their scientific examinations, we will establish the causes of what happened out there last Saturday and Sunday."
The Churchill Jeeralang fire has so far ravaged 40,000ha. It has a 130km perimeter.
Meanwhile, authorities are saying it is impossible to tell how many people are missing in Victoria.
The death toll from the bushfires stands at 181 but is certain to rise as further remains are found in more than 700 burnt-out homes strewn through the 330,000 hectares so far razed in Australia's worst bushfire disaster. One insurance company said the fires could cost $500 million.
Most of the latest people confirmed dead were killed in the small towns of Strathewen and St Andrews, on Melbourne's bushy northeastern fringe.
FAMILY TRAGEDY
It was only yesterday that Faye and Bill Walker's three daughters could be told their parents had died. They had waited at a police roadblock outside Healesville, Upper Yarra Valley, while two of their husbands went to the ghost town of Narbethong in search of their parents and their wheelchair-bound son, Geoffrey, 53.
The husbands returned to report what they had found: all three bodies in the house.
The Walkers' daughters - Marilyn, Julie and Vivian - sobbed and howled. The family huddled in grief.
"The last contact we had with them was 6.30 on Saturday afternoon," said the Walkers' son-in-law, Ian Creek. "They said we've got to go there's black smoke over the back of the shed. The neighbours had rung them at 5.30 saying to get out and they didn't go."
The Walkers had been attempting to flee. Their car was parked, with the key in the ignition. "The dog was found in the back seat," Mr Creek said. "It just happened so quickly. One of the problems they had is that Geoffrey is in a wheelchair and they couldn't move too quickly."
The Walker couple loved their garden at Narbethong. They had turned it into a district showpiece, and Geoffrey was a flower show judge.
Bill had built a lot of homes in the area, and in the early 1970s he found a property on the Acheron River. One of the daughters, Marilyn, was married there.
INQUIRIES
Yesterday, Victorian Premier John Brumby announced a royal commission into the disaster that has left more than 5000 homeless.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has blamed arsonists for "mass murder" and Victorian police believe they are closing in on arsonists responsible for perhaps two of the fires. It is possible the same people lit the Gippsland fires at Delburn last week and the blaze at Churchill on Saturday that killed at least 19.
They are treating each death in the weekend's fires as a potential homicide but say it could take many months to formally identify each victim in a task more complex than they faced after the Bali bombings.
LOCAL IMPACT
A horribly familiar story started to emerge in the ruined towns and hamlets devastated by the fire.
The official toll in Narbethong on Sunday was nil. Last night it was nine. More bodies are expected to be found. The official toll in Strathewen was seven. The final figure is expected to be more like 30. The state toll could climb to 200.
So many did not escape. Among the few formally identified are Mackenzie "Macca" Buchanan, 15, and his sister, Neeve Buchanan, 9, of Kinglake West. Their mother, Rebecca, also lost her brother, Danny Clark, 37, in the fire.
A prominent researcher at the Austin Hospital, Rob Pierce, of St Andrews, is among those missing feared dead, and it's understood his wife is in intensive care with injuries from the fire.
Marysville is a town no more. There is nothing left. Among its dead is Marie Walsh, 73. Among its missing are Elaine and Len Postlethwaite, who have lived there almost 50 years, and who stayed to defend their home from the firestorm.
In 2006, Mrs Postlethwaite was a runner in the Queen's Baton torch relay for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
At Marysville, Mrs Postlethwaite had been a primary school teacher and a past president of the local Lions Club. David Jones, the club's district governor, said they were "vibrant and caring" people.
It was Marysville's weather and its natural surroundings - both of which conspired to wipe out the town - that Mrs Postlethwaite loved most. She spoke of the "tree-covered mountains that encircle the village, its pure rivers and streams and sparkling waterfalls".
The names make the enormity of the loss all the more real to an uncomprehending nation. In St Andrews: Rae Carter and George Jackson, both in their early 70s. In Wandong: the speedboat champion Steve Lackas. In Mudgegonga: John and Sue Wilson. In Bendigo: Kevin "Mick" Kane.
One Melbourne company, Peerless JAL, lost two veteran staff and a former employee and at one point feared another two deaths. The cleaning products company's service technician, Peter Avola, 67, and his neighbour, the accounts administrator Marilyn Spooner, died in the Strathewen blaze. So did her son Damien, in his 30s, who also used to work for Peerless.
Mr Avola died after he and his wife, Mary, who also worked at Peerless, tried to flee in separate cars. Mr Avola told his wife to go ahead. That was the last time she saw him.
Ahmed Hammam, Peerless JAL's managing director, said: "I spoke to Dennis [Mrs Spooner's husband] He's very distressed his son went as well, so it's very hard for him."
Missing from Kinglake West is the actor Reg Evans, 81. He was helping an amateur theatre group last Thursday before he arrived at a friend's home at St Andrews. Here Evans was greeted by an old friend, a fellow actor. Tim Burns was visiting from Bondi. He and Evans had met on the set of the first Mad Max film three decades ago.
For years Evans, of Kinglake West, had lent his wealth of his dramatic experience - including roles in Blue Heelers, The Flying Doctors, Homicide and Skippy - to the local artistic community.
"We had a hug," Burns said yesterday. "Reg was cheerful, in good spirits."
They talked about the forecasts for a heatwave, but there was no predicting what would come two nights later. By then Burns was in Melbourne.
Evans has been missing since the fire swept through Kinglake and Kinglake West and demolished most of their homes in terrifyingly quick time on Saturday night.
"Reg was helping a neighbour water his property," Burns said. The neighbour had decided it was no use. They had better leave."
Evans walked up the hill to his own property in Kinglake West, where he lived with his wife, Angela. Friends have been unable to contact him since.
Burns is trying to fathom the news and reports from friends of a firestorm that took "30 minutes to travel 50 kilometres" at one point.
"One guy saw a whole hill explode in front of him, like a bomb," he said.
DEATH TOLLS
At 7am, deaths from the fires had been confirmed in Arthurs Creek (3), Callignee (11), Callignee Upper (1), Clonbinane (1), Eaglehawk (1), Flowerdale (4), Hazeldene (2), Hazelwood (4), Heathcote Junction (1), Humevale (6), Jeeralang (1), Kinglake (35), Kinglake West (4), Koornalla (4), Marysville (15), Muudgegonga (2), Narbethong (9), St Andrews (22), Steeles Creek (7), Strathewen (30), Taggerty (3), Unknown (2), Wondong (4), Yarra Glen (1).
Fire authorities fear the worst of the fires could take weeks to contain.
In a win for firefighters, the grass fire that has ravaged about 9,500ha near Redesdale, south of Bendigo, was contained by late Monday.
The Bureau of Meteorology says that while temperatures will be cooler, southerly winds of around 20 to 25 knots will spring up through the day.
Senior forecaster Richard Carlyon said there was no sign of significant rain for the rest of the week with only a few drops falling in the Gippsland area which is battling with the Churchill bushfire.
"The southerly winds are likely to freshen this afternoon and this evening through the central part of the state through to the northeast,'' Mr Carlyon said.
"The fires up around Healesville, up through Murrindindi and Beechworth will be affected by this freshening of the south to southwesterly winds of 20 to 25 knots.''
He said there would be some isolated showers in the south but no more than two to three millimetres.
"It's not really going to help,'' Mr Carlyon said.
He said it was one of the coolest mornings in Victoria so far this year with early morning temperatures in single figures reaching the mid-20s later in the day.
More than 240 firefighters from NSW, 95 from the ACT, 94 from Tasmania and 69 from South Australia have joined Victorian crews, along with disaster identification experts from around the nation.
A further 22 firefighters from Western Australia are expected to arrive in Melbourne on Tuesday.
- with AAP, NZPA
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Roy, I'm happy to see you posting - So we know you'll alright. I was just about to ask about Darren. He's not in harms way?? I still wish he would post and just let us know he's okay 
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