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MELBOURNE - Residents fled their homes in Australia's fire-devastated Victoria state on Monday as authorities predicted a resurgence of the blazes that killed more than 200 people earlier this month.
The deadly combination of strong winds and searing temperatures that fanned the worst fires the country has known are expected to return and drive flames toward towns east of Melbourne, the Country Fire Authority said.
With the change in weather forecast for later Monday, authorities set up an evacuation centre at Lilydale, a mere 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the heart of Australia's second largest city, Melbourne.
More than 100 residents were sheltering in the centre, officials told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and many more are believed to have left their homes to stay with relatives.
Shopkeeper Lindsay Jahn said up to 70 percent of the 2,500 residents in his town of Warburton had fled.
"The biggest issue for people has been trying to make decisions in time," Jahn told the Herald Sun online.
"I hope the tragic fires of two weeks ago have made people more decisive."
More than 3,500 firefighters are trying to control four major fires still raging in the southeastern state.
Officials say many of those who died in the wildfires that swept the region over the weekend of February 7 were trapped in their homes or perished in the mad rush to flee.
At Enoch Point, 80 kilometres east of Melbourne, the Country Fire Authority (CFA) warned residents to evacuate immediately if they did not want to defend their homes.
"Decide now if you are going to stay or go," it advised. "If you decide to leave in advance of the fire, then do so no later than this morning."
More than a dozen communities in the area were on high alert, and the CFA warned they may not receive any notification if conditions change unexpectedly in the volatile conditions.
Meteorologists predict temperatures will hit around 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) with northerly wind gusts of 35 kilometres an hour.
CFA spokeswoman Leith Hillard said conditions were some of the worst since the February 7 weekend.
"It is going to be a bit warmer and the winds are there, which they haven't really been in the last 10 days or so," she said.
That devastation was worst in villages and hamlets north of Melbourne, an area Britain's Princess Anne visited Monday after travelling to Australia for Sunday's memorial service for bushfire victims. -AFP
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