By Rob Taylor CANBERRA, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Bushfires threatened dozens of hamlets in Australia's southeast on Friday as authorities closed schools and braced for a horror weekend of soaring temperatures and gusting winds. Army reinforcements have been sent to Victoria state to help more than 2,000 local and New Zealand firefighters struggling to contain 31 blazes, mostly burning in the rugged, inaccessible mountains of the Victorian Alps. With temperatures nearing 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) expected on Saturday and Sunday, state Premier Steve Bracks said residents had to decide early whether to flee or defend homes during what is expected to be one of the worst fire weekends in memory. "It's as important having people with plans ready to put out spot fires ahead of the major front, or fires or activity ahead of the major front, and to stop that really catching on in a town or a community," Bracks said. Firefighters say Australia faces an extreme fire danger this summer amid drought that has turned many rural areas into a tinder box. Scientists fear climate change will bring more frequent higher temperatures and less rainfall to the country. Authorities said blazes stretching 150 kilometres (93 miles) from the central King Valley to the Victorian coast could destroy more than 600,000 hectares (1.4 million acres) in coming days as fires merge in the face of strong northerly winds. People in the Mount Buller ski resort were already fleeing on Friday, with fires expected to race towards the village on Saturday. Thick smoke plumes covered the major towns of Shepparton and Benalla, and stretched 300 kilometres (186 miles) north to the national capital Canberra. The bushfire forced the closure of 24 schools in communities under direct threat including Clifton Creek, Dargo, Lindenow, Maffra and Omeo, and state fire chief Russell Rees advised evacuees to depart early. "Late evacuation is deadly," Rees warned. The fires, mostly sparked by lightning strikes, have already burned across 150,000 hectares (370,000 acres) and are being fought by 350 tankers, bulldozers and 30 water-bombing aircraft. Bushfires are a regular feature of Australia's summer. In January 2005, the deadliest bushfires in 22 years killed nine people in South Australia. Four people were killed and 530 homes destroyed in Canberra in 2003. That same year, bushfires fuelled by drought ravaged a slice of Australia three times the size of Britain. Over the past 40 years, more than 250 people have been killed in bushfires in Australia.
