A LEGAL battle is looming in the south-west to secure millions of dollars for victims of the firestorms which tore through the region.Warrnambool-based Maddens Lawyers is preparing to launch a class action over a private electricity company it believes could be responsible for the blazes 10 days ago.The claim centres on initial indications that faulty power lines sparked the fires which razed homes and burnt about 3000 hectares at Horsham and blackened about 1750 hectares at Coleraine.It comes as a Melbourne law firm lodged a claim against Singapore-owned electricity company SP Ausnet in relation to the devastating bushfires in the state's east. The metropolitan legal wrangle is expected to involve hundreds of millions of dollars and last for years.It focuses on a fallen power line that is believed to have caused the fire which ripped through Kinglake, Steels Creek and St Andrews, killing more than 100 people, destroying about 1000 homes and leaving a $500 million damage bill.Maddens senior commercial litigation lawyer Brendan Pendergast said the south-west claim would be "completely separate" to the Melbourne challenge. "We don't know who the defendant is at this stage. We are unsure who the electrical supplier is for that area but we should know in a few days," Mr Pendergast said. An exact figure on the Horsham and Coleraine fires' damage bill is not yet known. Mr Pendergast estimated it could run into millions of dollars. "There were people who had their homes burnt to the ground and they will need to reconstruct, replace their contents," he said.Maddens helped win $40 million for about 400 victims of the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires that devastated the south-west, burning 100,000 hectares, killing four people, destroying 200,000 sheep and ravaging 116 homes.Maddens has started a register of affected landowners for the recent bushfires and is asking people to join. Mr Pendergast said the firm looked at including victims of the Pomborneit fire that burnt almost 1300 hectares in the potential class action. But the CFA has said the blaze could have been deliberately lit.