A MAN'S body has been found after a shed fire on NSW's Central Coast.
The 63-year-old's body was discovered inside the shed after Fire & Rescue NSW officers extinguished the blaze behind a home on Panorama Avenue at Charmhaven after 5pm (AEDT) on Saturday.
A crime scene has been established and is being examined by forensic officers.
TWELVE homes have been lost in South Australia as thousands of hectares lay scorched across the state.
But easing weather conditions have enabled firefighters to gain the upper hand on a large blaze in the Eden Valley on Saturday night.
Residents of the small town of Truro were issued an emergency warning on Saturday afternoon, as the large fire made a run towards the Sturt Highway.
The SA Country Fire Service (CFS) warned that the blaze, which has burnt through more than 22,500 hectares since Friday, was putting lives and homes at risk.
But by about 8pm (CST) the CFS had downgraded the alert to a watch and act.
However, the CFS said weather conditions were erratic, so people should remain vigilant.
The downgrade came after about 160 firefighters were supported by nine aircraft at the fire throughout Saturday, a CFS spokesman told AAP.
The fire was one of five out-of-control blazes in the state.
Also of concern was a fire at Bangor in the southern Flinders Ranges, where the CFS said conditions were continually changing.
A watch and act alert was issued in the afternoon, with residents urged not to return to the area until advised.
But the CFS spokesman said crews had experienced a "pretty reasonable day", with milder conditions allowing firefighters to get the better of some blazes.
"We have had a day where we have been able to consolidate a lot of fires and nothing new has kicked off."
Five homes have been lost in the Bangor blaze, with two destroyed in the Billiat park region and five lost in Eden Valley.
However, the CFS said the number could increase as damage assessment crews were deployed.
There has been substantial stock losses.
Premier Jay Weatherill said it would be an achievement if the state came through the fires without loss of life or substantial property loss.
For those who have been affected, disaster relief assistance would be made available.
"For those people who have lost their homes and other property including livestock, this will be devastating," Mr Weatherill said in a statement on Saturday.
"We will respond to each and every one of those families to make sure that they have the support they need to be able to cope with the losses that they've suffered."
CFS assistant chief officer Rob Sandford said while firefighters had gained the upper hand, he called on people to remain on alert.
"Anywhere where we have had a fire in the last seven days, people need to be vigilant because whilst the threat may have reduced with the cooler temperatures, the wind is still reasonably strong and gusty," he told the ABC.
A UK Independence Party (Ukip) councillor has blamed recent storms and floods on the British government's decision to legalise gay marriage.
David Silvester, who defected from the Tories in protest at David Cameron's support for same-sex unions, claimed he had warned the Prime Minister that the legislation would result in "disasters".
The Henley-on-Thames councillor said that the country had been "beset by storms" since the passage of the new law on gay marriage because Mr Cameron had acted "arrogantly against the Gospel".
In a letter to the Henley Standard he wrote: "The scriptures make it abundantly clear that a Christian nation that abandons its faith and acts contrary to the Gospel (and in naked breach of a coronation oath) will be beset by natural disasters such as storms, disease, pestilence and war.
"I wrote to David Cameron in April 2012 to warn him that disasters would accompany the passage of his same-sex marriage bill.
"But he went ahead despite a 600,000-signature petition by concerned Christians and more than half of his own parliamentary party saying that he should not do so."
Blaming the prime minister for the bad weather, he added: "It is his fault that large swathes of the nation have been afflicted by storms and floods.
"He has arrogantly acted against the Gospel that once made Britain 'great' and the lesson surely to be learned is that no man or men, however powerful, can mess with Almighty God with impunity and get away with it for everything a nation does is weighed on the scaled of divine approval or disapproval."
Ukip said the views expressed by Mr Silvester were "not the party's belief" but defended his right to state his opinions.
VICTORIA has done "reasonably well" during the major bushfire emergency that gripped the state during the past few days, authorities say.
More than 100,000 hectares have burnt across the state in conditions described as the worst since Black Saturday.
Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley says the impact of the fires was "not a bad result", given the conditions.
"You can see that in some respects we've had big fires - 100,000 hectares burnt in a matter of basically two days - but you would think that we've done reasonably well," he told reporters.
The main fires are raging in the Grampians in the east, the Mallee in the northwest and Gippsland but all emergency warnings have been downgraded.
Four homes have been recorded lost to fire that burnt through more than 51,000 hectares in the northern end of the Grampians National Park and claimed one life.
Numerous sheds and many kilometres of fencing were destroyed, and up to 7500 sheep were affected, most of which will have to be put down.
Authorities say a woman whose body was found at her Roses Gap property on Friday morning died as a result of a medical issue.
The tourist village of Halls Gap was saved from the fire's path on Friday by an earlier-than-expected wind change.
Some homes were lost in the small town of Brimpaen, while two properties near Dadswells Bridge have also been affected.
The Grampians fire caused building damage at the Troopers Creek Tavern and the Happy Wanderers Holiday Resort at Wartook.
While conditions cool after a four-day heatwave, authorities say the firefighting effort will continue for days.
Crews are still battling fires in the Mallee region and in Gippsland, but authorities no longer believe the more than 30 fires raging out of control there will merge to form a 500,000-hectare inferno.
THE president of Turkmenistan says his government will begin installing gas meters in households, ending the unlimited supply of free gas to citizens in the energy-rich Central Asian nation.
President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov said during a televised address on Saturday that the government hoped the meters would encourage people to consume energy in a more "economical" way.
The nation is estimated to have the world's fourth-largest natural gas reserves, and gas, electricity and water have been supplied free to households since 1993.
When Berdymukhamedov became president in 2006, he pledged to extend that policy until 2030.
He has ruled with an iron fist, allowing no dissent or independent media in the predominantly Muslim nation of five million.
