One of WA’s fire chiefs has warned the community to brace themselves for similar fire conditions experienced this week on Christmas and Boxing Day as authorities continue to assess the full extent of the damage left by a devastating blaze in Perth Hills.
Department of Fire and Emergency Services duty assistant commissioner Rick Curtis pleaded for the community to be prepared on Friday after several emergency-level blazes broke out across the State over the past week.
They included a catastrophic fire in Parkerville, which destroyed two homes caused by a hollow tree falling onto a power line.
Bushfires also raged in West Toodyay, Eaton, in dense, old-growth forest near Northcliffe and Lancelin.
Speaking on ABC Radio, Mr Curtis said while the cause of those fires was still under investigation, “there’s nothing of great significance by way of suspicious nature that is jumping out”.
He said Thursday was a “really busy day — one out of the box” — but crews were well-prepared.
“I’ll say we were preparing for this weather event for three to five days, so we were well-informed about what the risks were and what parts of the State were at risk.
“Yes, we were busy, but we weren’t stretched; we are well-placed to resource these types of events.
“And indeed, WA is such a large State we strategically placed our resources for the trough as it moves towards the east, and a new one is coming through on Sunday.”
Mr Curtis warned that the trough would bring weather conditions similar to those experienced over the past 48 hours.
“Of course, that takes us into Christmas Day and Boxing Day and the like, where people enjoy festivities,” he said.
“The message to the community is to understand that we are not out of the woods yet.
“We’ve got another weather pattern coming through on Sunday, so please understand your own environment and take steps to put your bushfire survival plan in place.”
Mr Curtis said the number of homes lost in the Parkerville blaze may rise slightly, but “they are not going to significantly increase by any stretch of the imagination, which is great news”.
“It’s tragic for those property owners who have been impacted, but certainly, the potential of the Parkerville event — I can’t overstate how risky that fire was,” he said.
“It was an unbelievable effort on behalf of ground and air resources to contain that fire to the size and shape that it was in the end.”
No property loss has been reported in Lancelin, Eaton or Northcliffe, with sheds, vehicles and outhouses damaged in the West Toodyay blaze.
DFES Commissioner Darren Klemm said his thoughts were those who had lost their homes in Parkerville.
Mr Klemm said firefighters were being given a reprieve with the weather conditions on Friday, but reiterated Mr Curtis’ concerns going into next week.
He said there were discussions around bringing in more incident management teams from the Eastern States, primarily to manage to Northcliffe fire, which is burning through difficult terrain and in 30-year-old fuel-loads in places.
“It’s going to take a long time to bring that fire into a safe state,” he said.
“We are mindful of the impact of what’s happened the past three or four days onto our incident management team personnel and just making sure that if we do continue to get other significant bushfires in other parts of the State, that we are still able to keep the resources up to Northcliffe.”
Mr Klemm met with the fire commissioners across the country and New Zealand on Friday morning around that planning, with a decision to be made later on Friday.