SYDNEY: Thousands fled wildfires raging on the Australian island of Tasmania, destroying at least 80 properties and leaving unconfirmed reports of one man dying in the blaze, police said on Saturday.

The fires flared on Friday as much of the country suffered a summer heatwave, which pushed temperatures above 40 celsius in Tasmania, a southern island state known for its cooler climate.

One of the worst affected areas was the small community of Dunalley, some 55 kilometers east of Hobart, where police estimated that about 30 percent of buildings have been destroyed, including the police station and school. In nearby Connelly’s Marsh, about 40 percent of buildings have been ruined.

Police said that a firefighting crew was trapped by a bushfire on Friday at Dunalley, where there are fears that a man may have died in the blaze.

Further south on the Tasman Peninsula east of Hobart, as many as 2,000 people had taken refuge in the town of Nubeena overnight, while another 700 were sheltering at the nearby historic Port Arthur site. Others have been ferried to emergency accommodation in Hobart.

“At this stage, there are no confirmed reports of deaths or major injuries resulting from the fires throughout the state,” Tasmania Police said in a statement.

Authorities said that while temperatures had dropped from Friday’s peak of 41.8 celsius—the hottest day in Hobart since records began in the early 1880s—the fire danger had yet to pass, with several bushfires burning out of control on Saturday in the east and west of the state.

“Those fires overnight did lose a bit of intensity,” Tasmania Fire Service spokesman John Holloway told ABC TV. “While those fires did abate, they’re still doing a bit of damage.”

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the government would help support those affected by the bushfires.

Bushfires are also burning in other parts of Australia, including South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

Australia’s worst bushfires occurred in February 2009, in the so-called Black Saturday disaster, in which a series of fires raged in extremely dry and windy conditions, destroying 2,000 homes and killing 173 people.