Australian firefighters battled seven wildfires in the southern Victoria state on Wednesday, hoping to control the flames before expected higher temperatures hit the fire-ravaged state on Friday, reported reuters. Authorities are concerned the expected hot and windy weather could fuel the fires and pose new threats to communities in Victoria, where a firestorm on Feb. 7 killed 210 people and destroyed about 1,800 houses. "It (Friday) is just as bad a day as you can imagine, and on top of that the state is just tinder dry," Victorian state Premier John Brumby told reporters. The developments came as the Insurance Council of Australia said insurance companies had so far received general claims worth A$810 million ($523 million) from the bushfires, the worst natural fire disaster in a century. Insurance Council chief executive Kerrie Kelly said insurance companies had received 6,760 claims for property, businesses and farming losses from the Feb. 7 fires so far, with 60 percent of domestic and commercial claims already assessed. Several communities hit by the firestorms remain cut off from outsiders as authorities investigating more than 200 deaths ban access to anyone other than local residents. "As access improves, assessors are able to move into more of the affected areas, allowing the general insurance industry to assess the damage to insured properties," Kelly said in a statement. Suncorp-Metway , Australia's No. 2 car and home insurer, earlier this month said it expected to face about A$180 million in costs from the fires and floods in the northern Queensland state. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services have said the Australian general insurance industry is financially and operationally well placed to respond to the bushfire disaster. Mild weather has allowed firefighters to set up containment lines and clear firebreaks over the past week, with reinforcements arriving from New Zealand and other Australian states on Wednesday ahead of the next hot spell. Victoria's Department of Sustainability and Environment said fire crews would patrol a fire edge equivalent to about 1,100 km (680 m) long, spread across different parts of the state, over the coming two days.
