Vic: 66 people officially identified
20 Mar 2009 4:49 PM
MELBOURNE, March 20 AAP - Victoria's coroner says 66 victims of Black Saturday's bushfires have been identified.
Although 210 people are confirmed to have died on February 7, coroner Jennifer Coate said the identification process was a complex one.
As each victim was identified, their families were contacted and informed, Judge Coate's office said in a statement on Friday afternoon.
The Disaster Victim Identification process was a complex one, the statement said, and in some cases identification will not be possible.
"We must work to the legal standards of our system to ensure that misidentification does not occur, and to avoid the untold pain this would cause already grieving families," the statement said.
Details of each person identified will not be made public for privacy reasons.
Judge Coate has lifted the last of the exclusion notices covering bushfire areas.
Earlier on Friday, Assistant Commissioner Keiran Walshe said there would soon be an update on the official bushfire death toll of 210.
