Australia Police Release Wildfire Suspect Picture

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Fears are mounting in Australia that arsonists lit one of the deadly wildfires that may have killed as many as 100 people.

Police now suspect arsonists could have caused the deaths of more than 130 people in the weekend's horrific fires.

As another deliberately lit fire broke out in Ivanhoe,in eastern Melbourne, Premier John Brumby confirmed police were investigating the causes of several blazes around the state.

Police have released a computer image of a man, in his 20s, who was seen before the Ivanhoe fire broke out.

And a Country Fire Authority volunteer who spent the week battling bushfires has died in a suspicious house fire in Melbourne.

Brumby said Wednesday a large police team was making progress with its investigation into the blazes that had killed 181 people and destroyed 1,069 homes. "It's devastating," he said.

Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon said evidence was mounting that the Marysville inferno was deliberately lit.

"There are a number of the other fires that fire investigators believe have been suspicious because of the way the fire behaved, and there's the suggestion that perhaps the Marysville fire was deliberately lit," she said.
Two men arrested at Taggerty on suspicion of arson were released without charge.

Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland also said fires that have claimed the lives of 21 Gippslanders might have been the work of a serial arsonist.

Overland said police were close to releasing a sketch of the suspect in the Gippsland fires.