Bushfire emergency: Firefighters relieved by cooler weather easing threat to homes and properties

Firefighters tackling a series of bushfires across the Peel region managed to get the upper hand on Sunday, as weather conditions eased the threat to homes and properties.

Fires that started in hot, windy conditions on Saturday in Serpentine National Park, North Dandalup, Barragup and Nambeelup burned through almost 2000ha and caused property damage to outbuildings and sheds.

DFES commissioner Darren Klemm said hundreds of firefighters had tackled the multiple fronts across the southern suburbs.

“During Saturday, high temperatures and really strong winds caused for some at one point over 100 bushfires were burning in the southern half of the state that it made it particularly difficult for crews,” Klemm said on Sunday.

“We were able to deal with the majority of those incidents between farmers, local bush fire brigade volunteers out in the Wheatbelt, and also career firefighters, volunteer firefighters, and firefighters from DBCA.”

After temperatures reached a high of 36Cin Perth on Saturday with strong easterly winds, Commissioner Klemm said the changed conditions on Sunday had been a relief for crews.

“We’ve got a good four to five days now of more stable milder weather conditions, which is going to give us a great opportunity to get around these fires and make them safe,” Klemm said.

Started by dry lightning strikes, the blazes in Serpentine and North Dandalup burned through 1561 and 113 hectares respectively.

Resident Jane Radny was among the residents who had to evacuate from their properties.

“On Saturday afternoon we saw the smoke billowing and it was really quite close,” Ms Radny said.

“It was very scary as we’ve got horses, dogs, and cats and our property has two boundaries with the national park so if that goes up we’re in big strife.

“We grabbed everything precious, loaded up the animals and just took off.”

The North Dandalup fire was downgraded on Sunday morning to a watch and act, with nearby homes still on an advice level.

Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson said 14 firefighting aircraft were already deployed to tackle the fires and hundreds of firefighters were on the ground.

Mr Dawson said an air tanker from NSW, which arrived in WA in Sunday, could carry 15,000 litres of water and would help extinguish fires in difficult terrain. He said firefighters expected to put the fires out “in the next day or two”.

“Serpentine National Park, in particular, has difficult terrain and so it’s hard to put the fires out in that park. The large air tanker will provide the firepower needed to put that out,” he said.

“While we’ve got a range of other aircraft available, we just thought given the inaccessible nature of fire in Serpentine National Park, that it was prudent to get the large air tanker across from New South Wales.”

The week ahead is expected to be cooler and winds are forecasted to drop, but Mr Dawson said it remained critical to put the fires out as soon as possible.

“It is an important reminder that the bushfire season is now here and that it will be a long and dry fire season,” he said.

The fire across Barragup and Nambeelup, which burned through 270ha and threatened homes, was downgraded to a watch and act on Sunday

Barragup resident Matt Treloar said the community was feeling “volatile and anxious” following a tense night of rapidly moving bushfires, which is understood to have left sheds and properties destroyed.

“It all looks pretty black now... it was pretty scary.”

“A lot of property, sheds and paddocks have been destroyed,” he said.

Caiden Mossman was anxious to see if there was any damage at his property after seeing concerning footage on his security cameras.

“We’ve got security cameras so we watched them and saw the front of the street just go up,” he said.

“Hopefully we’re lucky but there’s a couple houses down where sheds and caravans got burnt.

“We are just constantly checking if we can go home.”