Insurance claims add to bushfires' human toll

Bolstered by cooler wear and desperately needed rain, exhausted firefighters in Australia raced to shore up defenses against dely wildfires before blazes flare again within days when scorching temperatures are expected to return.

first hints of financial toll from disaster began to emerge on Tuesday.

Insurance Council of Australia said estimated dam bill h doubled in two days, with insurance claims reaching 700 million Australian dollars ($485 million).

"Around 20% of those claims have alrey been assessed, bearing in mind that fires have being going for some months w, " Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said in a TV interview in Canberra.

Frydenberg said half of those have alrey been settled.

He ded he was in talks with insurance companies to see how y could "work toger going forward to prioritize those claims only that have alrey been put in, but also those that will be submitted into future."

fires, fueled by drought and country's hottest and driest year on record, have been raging since September, months earlier than is typical for Australia's annual wildfire season.

So far, blazes have killed 25 people, destroyed 2,000 homes and scorched an area twice size of U.S. state of Maryland.

"And that's before we even begin to count cost of outhouses, of sheds, of public places, of schools," said Andrew Colvin, he of National Bushfire Recovery ncy.

" cost of this is unprecedented."