New Word Coined In Australia - "Megafires" - "They Burn Until They Hit A Coastline" - Reuters

CANBERRA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - They burn like fire hurricanes on fronts stretching sometimes thousands of kilometres and with a ferocity that explodes trees and makes them impossible to extinguish short of rain or divine intervention. Bushfires like those which have raged through Australia's Southeast for two months and which struck Europe, Canada and the western United States in 2003 are a new type of "megafire" never seen until recently, a top Australian fire expert said on Friday.

"They basically burn until there is a substantial break in the weather, or they hit a coastline," Kevin O'Loughlin, chief executive of Australia's government-backed Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre, told Reuters. "These fires can't be controlled by any suppression resources that we have available anywhere in the world."

Wildfires have struck five of Australia's six states since November, blackening more than 1.2 million hectares (4,600 square miles) of bushland, killing one and gutting dozens of homes. Firefighters were being airdropped on Friday into the country's rugged southeastern alps to try to control a blaze threatening the upmarket ski resort of Thredbo, just 150 km (93 miles) south of the capital, Canberra. An army of 15,000 Australian volunteers was being assisted by firefighters from Canada and New Zealand, with more teams from the United States expected to arrive next week.

O'Loughlin said international experience pointed to megafires becoming usual in many parts of the world, driven in part by global warming and by laws protecting national parks, which provided a source of fuel to megafire fronts.

EDIT

http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=SYD292002

Interactive Statewide map + links

PDF map of fire area

The total area of the main fires in Victoria is roughly 12,000 KM^2 or 4,700 Mi^2


Annotated Satellite image of Eastern half of Victoria for reference. (Google maps screen shot)
Need more goto: http://maps.google.com.au/

A couple of lists for reference.
US states by area

Countries of the world by area