About 100,000 people were urged to flee five Melbourne suburbs on Monday evening as Australia's spiralling bushfire crisis killed a volunteer firefighter battling a separate blaze in the countryside.
Authorities in the country's second-biggest city downgraded an earlier bushfire emergency warning but said residents should steer clear of the blaze, which has burned through 40 hectares (nearly 100 acres) of grassland.
In Bundoora - just 16km (10 miles) north of the city centre and home to two major Australian university campuses - the fire's spread toward houses had been halted for now but it was yet to be brought under control, said Victoria Emergency.