Sydney - Major fires were burning Friday across the southern Australian state of Victoria as more than 3,000 firefighters tried to hold containment lines with high temperatures and strong winds intensifying the bushfire danger.

   More than 200 schools, childcare centres, and many national parks and tourist attractions in south-west Victoria and along the picturesque Great Ocean Road have been closed because of the fire threat.

   Tourists have been advised to stay away from high-risk areas. Some residents have left their homes early instead of staying to defend their properties.

   "After our experience, I'd consider leaving right now, particularly if you live in an area where there is only one road in and out of the place," volunteer firefighter David Spooner, who lost his wife and son in the February 7 inferno, told a local radio.

   Many people trying to flee the blazes on February 7 were trapped in their cars.

   The Department of Sustainability and Environment is warning of greater fire danger later Friday when a cool front brings a shift in wind direction that could cause fires to flare up in the region.

   "There is no place for complacency," emergency services commissioner Bruce Esplin told the national broadcaster ABC Radio. "The fires that are burning, the winds, the lightning and the state of fuel that exists around the whole of Victoria is a cause for real concern."

   Wildfires in February have claimed 210 lives, destroyed 2,029 homes, displaced 7,500 people, blackened hundreds and thousands of hectares of forest and farmland, and killed livestock and native animals.

   Meanwhile, investigations were continuing into suspected arson that might have ignited some of the fires. Victoria police have charged a 39-year-old man with arson causing death, and police suspect arson in at least one other case.