Australian bush fires destroy 30 homes in worst conditions since 2009

More than 30 homes have been razed in the worst fire conditions Australia has seen since a 2009 inferno killed 173 people.

Flames were threatening Melbourne, the country's second-largest city, officials said yesterday. Hot, dry winds and soaring temperatures fanned scores of major blazes across the southeast of the nation on Sunday, with the state of Victoria sweltering through its worst fire risk weather in five years.

"They were ferocious fires, they ran hard, they hit homes," said fire commissioner Craig Lapsley.

The emergency came exactly five years after the so-called Black Saturday firestorm devastated the state, flattening whole towns in what was Australia's deadliest natural disaster of the modern era.

Victoria state premier Dennis Napthine said it had been the worst fire danger day since Black Saturday, with more than 30 homes confirmed lost so far across the state.

"At this stage we have no evidence of loss of life, which is a great effort by the firefighters and all emergency services, and at this stage we have no evidence of serious injury," Napthine said. Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the government stood ready "to do all we reasonably can to ensure that people get the help they need in these difficult, difficult hours and days".