Insurance claims add to bushfires' human toll

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

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

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

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

Frydenberg said half of those have already been settled.

He added he was in talks with insurance companies to see how they could "work together going forward to prioritize those claims only that have already been put in, but also those that will be submitted into the future."

The fires, fueled by drought and the 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, the blazes have killed 25 people, destroyed 2,000 homes and scorched an area twice the size of the U.S. state of Maryland.

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

"The cost of this is unprecedented."