Milder weather conditions brought some relief to Australian firefighters Thursday as they battled wildfires that have killed at least 181 people, officials said.
Fears that two major fires in Gippsland east of the Victoria state capital Melbourne could meet up and turn into one huge conflagration had eased, they said, although some 21 blazes were still burning.
"Because it's cool, (there is) a little moisture in the air, the winds are very low, the weather conditions have been very favourable for what we have been trying to achieve," said environment department spokesman Stuart Ord.
"The weather's going to be reasonably cool and calm today and for the next few days," Ord told the national AAP news agency.
"That's going to help our firefight effort in terms of getting our people and equipment to the fire edge and get containment lines in. It gives us a window of opportunity now to do some good work."
The death toll has remained at 181 for a day but the authorities continue to warn that it is expected to rise sharply as more bodies are found in the charred wreckage of homes and villages.
"The toll at the moment is 181 people, but we do expect, as I've said all along, that would rise as we are working our way through a number of communities," said Victoria Police Commissioner Christine Nixon.
"We are going house by house and street by street to search for bodies … and we have some cause to believe there are clearly more people who have died in this fire," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The state coroner's office has facilities prepared for 300 bodies, she said.
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