SYDNEY (AFP)--Australia's rampaging wildfires have wiped out a pretty resort village and could have largely destroyed another town, authorities said Sunday.
At least 65 people have died in the fires in southeastern Victoria state, with the village of Marysville and the town of Kinglake among the hardest hit.
"Marysville, which was one the loveliest townships in Victoria, if not Australia, has just about been wiped out," said Pastor Ivor Jones, whose own home in the town was razed.
Victoria state's Country Fire Authority said only one building was left standing in the popular tourist hamlet, although there were no fatalities among the residents.
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said whole towns would need to be rebuilt and the federal government was preparing a massive disaster relief effort.
Shocked survivors in Marysville told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. how the flames devoured houses one by one, with exploding gas canisters being hurled through walls.
Aerial pictures taken by the broadcaster show a town flattened, with neatly laid-out streets surrounded by rubble and blackened trees.
The village, northeast of the Victoria state capital Melbourne, had just 1,000 permanent residents, but its beauty and proximity to winter skiing had attracted city dwellers who built holiday and retirement homes there.
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