More than half a million homes and businesses in the city and other parts of the state were hit by blackouts, snarling traffic, trapping people in lifts and disrupting train services.

The state government called an emergency meeting and said full electricity supply was unlikely to be restored for days.

Seven homes were destroyed near Tatong northeast of Melbourne by the same fire that cut a major power line and caused the blackout, said environment department spokesman Pat Groenhout.

Farm outbuildings and livestock were also destroyed as the fire raged through 27,000 hectares (66,700 acres).

"The Tatong fire is the main area of concern," said Groenhout. "It grew to 27,000 hectares overnight from about 20,000 hectares yesterday afternoon and we lost seven houses at Toombullup.

"It's still going very actively and putting a lot of pressure on to the south."

Another home was razed in a blaze caused by lightning near Steiglitz to the west of Melbourne.

"The fire is burning very close to the area that was burnt by bushfires in January 2006. It is an area that has scattered houses in amongst the bush," said environment department duty officer Andrew Graystone.

Firefighters were lowered from helicopters into remote areas near Benambra in the east of the state, where at least five new fires were burning, Graystone said.

More than 900,000 hectares, mostly state forest, have been burned out or are still burning in Victoria state where the wildfires began on December 1.

Some 2,500 firefighters from Australia, New Zealand and Canada are working to contain the blazes, which have laid waste to thousands of hectares of land and killed tens of thousands of wild animals.

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