Australians flee deadly wildfire so fierce 'it is creating own weather' The worst of the fires, in The Grampians national parkland in eastern Victoria, could merge to form a blaze spanning across 500,000 hectares of bushland. Craig Lapsley, the state's fire services commissioner, said the blaze in The Grampians was so intense that it had "a twelve-kilometre [seven-mile] convection column... that is creating its own weather." "There is a fair chance of losing property and even if people are caught in the wrong place, a life could be lost, or certainly injury," he said. Several residents in the town of Halls Gap have opted to stay and protect their properties, risking their lives in the face of "intense and erratic fires," he said. One woman, in the town of Roses Gap, has so far been reported to have died in the fire. "As far as fire conditions go, they're probably the worst we can have," David Grimble, a mayor in town of Horsham in western Victoria, told Fairfax Radio. We would have some asset loss, there's no question about that.. but what exactly has been lost, I don't have a good handle on that. Residents in Melbourne and Adelaide were celebrating as the heatwave finally broke late on Friday. In Melbourne, temperatures plummeted by 10 degrees centigrade in just 30 minutes. The heat across many parts of south-east Australia was due to end with heavy thunderstorms, which could bring more fires. "We anticipate more lightning developing - high base thunderstorms will develop and they will be predominantly dry so we're not expecting rain, so there is a fresh source of ignition for fire authorities unfortunately," said John Nairn, from Australia's bureau of meteorology.