KERRY O’BRIEN, PRESENTER: Not only is Victoria in a state of shock and grief, but also the nation.
The full scale of this disaster is yet to be fully realised. The full horror story will take several days to be revealed.
Whole towns and districts reduced to a nuclear landscape. The death toll: 131 and climbing; the relief effort immense, as survivors line up for the basic staples of life, rummaging through clothing bins for something to wear.
It's without doubt the worst set of bushfires in recorded Australian history, and it's still going tonight in many parts of the state, despite the herculean efforts of thousands of firefighters.
Tonight we have two gripping reports from the heart of the disaster and we'll hear one graphic story of two bushfire veterans who did everything right and still nearly died. We'll also be speaking with Victorian Premier John Brumby about the Royal Commission he's just announced.
But first, Heather Ewart begins our special coverage, with some of the survivors of the firestorm that destroyed the town of Marysville, 100 kilometres north-east of Melbourne.
HEATHER EWART, REPORTER: This is Marysville, as it once was: a beautiful historic town on the way to the Victorian snowfields. This is what it became in just a few hours on Saturday.
STEVE GUILFOYLE, LOCAL RESIDENT: It's upsetting for all of us. We're a small community and we count on each other so much. We're gonna have a lot of funerals to go to, bury a lot of friends.
STEPHEN COLLINS, RESORT ASST. MANAGER: Unfortunately, I lost my house. I've lost probably eight friends I knew in Marysville that have died.
HEATHER EWART: Do you want to get back there?
LOCAL RESIDENT II: Marysville? There's nothin' left.
HEATHER EWART: A town in ashes and a shellshocked community struggling to comes to terms with their huge losses.
LOCAL RESIDENT III: One of the fellas we know, he come down from his house and between his house and the oval, he's seen probably six or seven dead bodies, sitting on the floor.
HEATHER EWART: Many of the surviving residents are sheltering here, at a relief centre in neighbouring Alexandra, all roads to their town now blocked. And, the news filtering in is grim.
As the flames engulfed Marysville and nearby towns, desperate residents flocked here to the hall of the Alexandra secondary college, where they sought shelter, food, clothes and comfort from each other. They had horrific stories to tell of the intensity and speed of a fire, the likes of which locals had never seen before.
STEPHEN COLLINS: It sounded like a herd of buffalo coming over the hill and I said, "Get your stuff; that's the fire coming up the valley." You could just hear it rumbling. It got - absolutely got so dark that nobody could see, everybody had their headlights on. They were evacuating people from the football oval, so there was a - just a bank up of cars trying to get out of Marysville at that point. And the fire was coming over the hill really fast.
HEATHER EWART: Stephen Collins is the assistant manager of the Karinga and Marilyn resorts. He was at work as the fire approached and he fled to Alexandra in a hotel van with two other employees and their pet budgie.
So this is all you've got?
STEPHEN COLLINS: This is my life. I've got my burn cream, my woollen socks and my midi files, my camera - that's it.
HEATHER EWART: That's all he had time to grab. While he knows his house and the resorts he managed are now gone, he like many survivors here hasn't seen the the TV images of the destruction of Marysville. Still, he holds one forlorn hope.
STEPHEN COLLINS: Left my cat, so, Stardust, if you're there, I'm coming for ya'.
HEATHER EWART: Local builder John Thwaites decided he'd try to tough it out and fight to save his house. By the time he realised it was futile, it was too late to leave.
JOHN THWAITES, BUILDER: I tried to protect the house, but, um, the wind was just too heavy. And I, um, I just had to jump in the car and go down to the local oval. And, um, just survive.
HEATHER EWART: He and about 60 others huddled together on the oval as the fire roared through.
What was going through your mind on that oval?
JOHN THWAITES: Survive.
HEATHER EWART: And ya' have.
JOHN THWAITES: I'm still here, yeah.
HEATHER EWART: He too ended up at the Alexandra relief centre along with log truck driver Steve Guilfoyle who decided he and his family would forget about trying to save their house when he saw what had happened to his truck.
STEVE GUILFOYLE: My truck hasn't burnt, it melted.
HEATHER EWART: He is still deeply in shock and finds himself being comforted by his 12-year-old son, Jake.
JAKE GUILFOYLE, SON: You alright, Dad?
STEVE GUILFOYLE: Yeah, I'm alright, mate.
JAKE GUILFOYLE: You're shakin'?
STEVE GUILFOYLE: No, I'm just cold. Just nerves.
HEATHER EWART: Steve Guilfoyle knows he's lost his house, like so many others here. Now they're just desperate for information about friends, neighbours and family members who may have perished trying to save their homes. At a meeting at the relief centre last night, this was the most detail they could get from authorities.
POLICE OFFICER: There's been some deceased persons located, at this particular point in time police and disaster victim identification teams are in attendance. It may be several days before residents are allowed back into Marysville.
HEATHER EWART: While this shocked some at the meeting, others had already been bracing for the worst.
STEVE GUILFOYLE: Well we done a count this morning of people that we know have gone and we got to 15. But, ah, yeah, that's what we know amongst ourselves, who never made it. We got to 15 this morning, and nobody really wanted to discuss it anymore.
HEATHER EWART: Jake, how are you holding up?
JAKE GUILFOYLE: Alright.
STEVE GUILFOYLE: He's proppin' me up.
HEATHER EWART: Have you got a few mates who might be missing?
JAKE GUILFOYLE: Um, yeah: one.
STEVE GUILFOYLE: The two kids who go to school on the bus with you.
JAKE GUILFOYLE: Oh, yeah, three.
MARILYN NONCIE, TAGGERTY RESIDENT: A little boy this morning told me about his eight-year-old friend from a primary school and his mother who've perished, that's been confirmed.
HEATHER EWART: But, out of all this despair, volunteers are rallying to help. Donations from the public are pouring in and some unlikely friendships are being made. Marilyn Noncie, who still doesn't even know if her house is still standing, offers accommodation to the homeless resort manager.
MARILYN NONCIE: If we're answering in a few days and we've got something standing, you come along.
HOWARD PAIX, RECOVERY TEAM CO-ORDINATOR: It is a tough time. But I've - you see community come together. You see people work out what is real and what is the essential things in life and how relationships are so important. And seeing a whole community pull together is just marvellous.
HEATHER EWART: And, there was one lucky break in the weather: as night fell, so did the rain. Survivors who'd gathered at a local hotel hoped this might mean an early return to their hometowns. But, their hopes were short-lived. By day break, Marysville had been declared a crime scene and the roads in and out of town remained blocked.
LOCAL RESIDENT IV: We've got livestock that are dying and I have to go home.
POLICE OFFICER II: I understand that.
LOCAL RESIDENT IV: Are you gonna let us lose everything as well, now? I have to go home.
POLICE OFFICER II: I'm sorry, I have orders.
HEATHER EWART: Those stranded here are wondering what happens next. They can't go home, but what do they do, and where do they go once this school that sheltered them reopens to students in a few days' time?
LOCAL RESIDENT V: I don't think it's fully impacted on me yet, the shock. It's still - just not knowing what to do and wanting to get back home, but what is home now? It's rubble. It's ashes there.
KERRY O'BRIEN, REPORTER: Heather Ewart reporting.