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Worsening bushfires claimed nine more homes in Australia's southeast as firefighters in Canberra took advantage of kinder weather Wednesday to prepare for dangerous conditions at the weekend.

Emergency services warned the national capital faces a repeat of the winds and high temperatures that produced Saturday's fire storm, which claimed four lives, injured hundreds and destroyed 451 homes, according to latest estimates of the destruction.

Australian Capital Territory (ACT) emergency services bureau executive director Mike Castle said firefighters still battling blazes here were mostly working on containment lines and defensive backburning.

"We need to consider the return of hot dry winds in the northwest over the coming weekend," he said.

The Bureau of Meteorology said weekend conditions were shaping up to mirror the extremes of last weekend when temperatures hit the high 30s Celsius (over 100 degrees Fahrenheit).

A 60-year-old volunteer firefighter who suffered burns to 20 percent of his body after being caught by a fireball near Yass, in southern New South Wales, was airlifted late Tuesday to hospital in Canberra where he was in "serious but stable" condition.

Fire authorities in neighbouring Victoria said at least four houses were destroyed as bushfires raced through several small towns in the state's northeast late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

Hundreds of firefighters worked overnight to protect homes, focusing on towns around Wodonga and Beechworth in the northeast.

Winds fanned the fires burning on a 100 kilometre (60 mile) front towards the New South Wales border but firefighters managed to establish a control line around the township of Bright, expected to come under pressure later Wednesday.

Victoria's Premier Steve Bracks cut short his holidays to visit the scene of the fires, warning the state faced its most dangerous bushfire conditions ever after five years of drought.

In the island state of Tasmania, off Australia's southeast coast, five homes were lost but hundreds more were saved as more than 40 bushfires ravaged the state late Tuesday.

Members of the ACT legislature in Canberra began Wednesday drawing up plans to rebuild the suburbs devastated by the weekend fires as a nationwide appeal was launched to help victims rebuild their lives.

About 5,000 homes are still without power across the city, with power poles being brought in from Sydney.

The staff of Mount Stromlo Observatory, destroyed in Saturday's blaze, said Wednesday offers from the international scientific community and individuals were pouring in to rebuild the internationally-reknowned research facility.

Damage to the observatory was estimated at up to 40 million dollars (24 million USD).

A 15-year-old Canberra youth was arrested on charges of deliberately lighting fires outside the capital during this week's emergency that were brought under control before they could do any damage. He faces up to 15 years jail.

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