Melbourne, Australia ? Police charged a man with deadly arson in one of southern Australia’s wildfires and put him in protective custody as survivors expressed fury that anyone could set such a blaze.

Authorities also doubled the property toll on Friday, saying more than 1,800 homes were destroyed in the Feb. 7 blazes. Officials say 181 people were killed and expect that total eventually to exceed 200.

Firefighters were still working today to contain about a dozen blazes, though weather conditions were favorable.

The suspect, whose identity was banned from publication by a magistrate because of the risk of reprisal attacks against him or his family, was formally charged with one count of arson causing death, one of intentionally lighting a wildfire and one of possessing child pornography, Victoria police said.

Detectives arrested the man Friday and questioned him for several hours in Morwell, 75 miles east of the state capital Melbourne, police said. He was charged in a magistrate’s court, but did not appear in the courtroom, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

He was ordered held in custody and to undergo psychiatric evaluation, ABC said. He was taken to Melbourne, where another hearing was set for Monday.

The national news agency Australian Associated Press reported that some people outside the Morwell courthouse shouted abuse at a van that they believed was carrying him away.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has described the possibility of arson as “mass murder.”