VIC:Fires cost a conservative $4.4 billion

AAP General News (Australia)
08-01-2010
VIC:Fires cost a conservative $4.4 billion

The Victorian bushfires royal commission estimates the Black Saturday fires cost 4.4
billion dollars .. but believes the true figure is likely to be much more.

The commission alone has cost 90 million dollars .. while the value of the 173 lives
lost on February 7 .. 2009 .. has been put at 645 million dollars.

In its report .. released yesterday .. the commission said the government had spent
593 million dollars fighting the fires .. but it could not estimate the cost of injuries
.. or value of lost stock and crops.

The Insurance Council of Australia has reported claims of approximately 1.2 billion
dollars for destroyed property.

AAP RTV pmu/jen/

KEYWORD: TEAGUE COSTS (MELBOURNE)

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