At least 10 homes have been destroyed — along with four sheds and “numerous” cars and caravans — as firefighters continue to battle to bring a fire raging across Perth’s northern suburbs under control.
Powerful north-easterly winds that fanned the fire toward properties are expected to drop away this afternoon, prompting DFES commissioner Darren Klemm to cautiously predict that the worst stage of the inferno had now passed.
Around 80 per cent of the fire burning across the suburbs of Banksia Grove, Jandabup, Mariginiup, Melaleuca, Sinagra and Tapping is now contained, with firefighters currently concentrating on the south-west corner of the blaze front near Caporn Street.
While no fatalities or major injuries had been reported, Acting Premier Rita Saffioti confirmed the “significant fire” had engulfed 10 homes and that tragically “many people have lost animals”.
Around 130 people spent Wednesday night sheltering at the Gumblossom Community Centre in Quinns Rock, while animals – both livestock and domestic pets – are being cared for at the Wanneroo Showgrounds.
Ms Saffioti revealed the 500-bed Bullsbrook Centre for National Resilience — built by the Commonwealth Government to house COVID arrivals — is in the process of being rapidly stood up to accommodate people who were forced to evacuate from their properties overnight.
That includes the 10 families whose homes have been destroyed, many of whom are yet to receive official confirmation — with Mr Klemm saying those calls would occur this afternoon.
The DFES commissioner would not say exactly where the lost homes were located but said they were not all clustered together and instead spread across “two or three streets” that had been most heavily impacted.
A rapid damage assessment team is currently on its third sweep of the fire ground. While he could not rule out further losses, Mr Klemm said he was confident the final tally would not be much higher than 10.
However, that relies on firefighters keeping the fire within containment lines, with Mr Klemm warning it would be a number of days before the blaze was brought fully under control.
The fire – whose cause has not yet been determined – sprang up Wednesday afternoon near the intersection of Boundary Road and Bustard Road in Marginiup.
Mr Klemm said strong easterly winds and elevated temperatures, with the mercury topping out at 37.3C in Perth, pushed flames rapidly to the west.
Firefighters managed to establish a containment line at Pinjar Road at around 7pm – but the blaze broke free at its south-west corner at 4am Thursday morning, prompting emergency telephone alerts for residents in the vicinity.
“That was brought under control reasonably quickly (but) it is that particular area that we’re dealing with today, once again under the influence of this really strong easterly and sometimes pushing up into north-easterly winds,” Mr Klemm said.
“North-easterly winds are going to be in particularly difficult for us today with this fire. There is still a fair way to go for the fire to progress through some of those 5-acre and 10-acre lots.”
Mr Klemm said the “rural-urban interface” made the fire difficult to contain, with large fenced-off properties proving difficult to navigate for fire appliances.
Three firefighters suffered minor injuries. One fell off a ladder and two were treated on-site for smoke inhalation, while Mr Klemm said reports of a “burnover” event — when a fire truck becomes trapped in the middle of an inferno — were being investigated.
However, the Commissioner said none of the firefighters involved in the potential burnover were hurt.
Even with the support of the “majority” of WA’s aerial firefighting fleet — including a large-air tanker flown in from NSW earlier this week in anticipation of Perth’s current heatwave — Mr Klemm said conditions had severely hampered attempts to douse the flames.
“The message to the community is on days like this if we’re saying it’s an extreme fire danger rating or a catastrophic fire danger rating, then it is incredibly difficult for us to be able to control fires on those particular days,” he said.
Mr Klemm drew comparisons to the devastating Wooroloo bushfire from February 2021, which also occurred in the midst of an extreme heatwave and razed 86 homes.
“Those that were there at the time will remember the particularly difficult weather conditions we had to deal with over the course of that week and that was essentially mirrored yesterday,” he said.
“One of the key differences between Wooroloo and the fire we’re dealing with at the moment is the terrain. So reasonably flat out where we are, as opposed to Wooroloo which is in the Darling Scarp.”
Ms Saffioti said despite the best efforts of around 150 career and volunteer firefighters, there had been “significant damage”.
Beyond homes, sheds and cars, the fire has impacted around 100 transmission lines — leaving around 550 homes without power — and both Western Power and Water Corporation are were on Thursday investigating the extent of the remediation required.
“The forecast for today is unforgiving. The temperature is expected to hit a maximum of 40 degrees and the winds continue to be strong. Today will be a difficult day for everybody involved,” Ms Saffioti said.
Premier Roger Cook has been briefed twice on the developing situation this morning and is attempting to secure an early flight home from China, where he is on a trade mission originally scheduled to wrap up on Friday.
Ms Saffioti said the Premier planned to visit the fire zone as soon as he was back in WA.
She also revealed she had spoken with Federal Finance Minister Katy Gallagher about activating the long-dormant Bullsbrook quarantine facility to house families impacted by the fire, as well as any eastern states fire crews that may be deployed to WA.
“The Federal Government has agreed so it’s now making sure it’s ready to be operational,” Ms Saffioti said.
“The Department of Communities is out there at the moment making sure that it’s ready to go, so they’re going to check every component and then give us an indication early this afternoon on whether we can use it for this evening.”
Federal Minister for Emergency Management Murray Watt said there was “a little bit of work that needs to be done to make (the Bullsbrook Centre for National Resilience) ready for human habitation”.
“But that work is now underway. We want to get this open as quickly as we possibly can,” Mr Watt said.
“If it’s possible to have it up and running today, that’s what we’ll be doing.”