Wildfires death toll reduced to 173

The official death toll from last month’s deadly Australian wildfires was downgraded today to 173 from a previous count of 210.

The readjustment comes after police realised some sets of remains belonged to single victims rather than several people and people thought to be missing were found.

Victoria state police said in a statement today that following extensive examinations of the remains and a lengthy investigation into missing persons’ reports, they are “more confident that 173 is closer to the final number of people who perished during the fires”.

On February 7, record temperatures, high winds and forests dried by years of drought combined into infernos that swept a vast area of Victoria, destroying more than 2,000 homes and displacing more than 7,500 people.

In the six weeks since the blazes, many people who were initially thought to be missing as the result of the fires have been found, Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said in the statement.

The death toll was further reduced when forensic examiners realised some sets of remains belonged to one person, rather than multiple people.

Some remains at first thought to be human have since been identified as animal, which also impacted the death toll, Mr Walshe said.

“We continuously stated that this would be a complicated and lengthy matter and it would take considerable time before we were in a position to accurately determine the number of people who lost their lives as a result of this tragic event,” Mr Walshe said.