DAFWA said it is working closely with the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, local industry and shires as part of its emergency response. “Over the past four or five days we have been at full-on war with mother nature, I’m told we have not seen a firestorm of this magnitude, in terms of the size”, he told 6PR radio on Monday.
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He said he then found some local firefighters, who told him “we’re trying to get in now and it’s not good”.
Western Australia Fire Commissioner Wayne Gregson told a press conference that the fire in Yarloop was too intense to be tackled head-on.
“I’m very sympathetic to the Yarloop community and I’m deeply saddened by the deaths and the loss of the homes and the infrastructure of the town”.
But according to the president of the Yarloop Bowling Club, Ron Sackville, more buildings could have been saved if authorities hadn’t ignored his warnings about poor water pressure in the town previous year.
“I’m pleased to say that the overwhelming majority heeded our warnings”, he said. “It is incomprehensible to me that people would say, “well, I didn’t know that there was a fire on my doorstep”. The old guys are hearing Harvey and Waroona [not Yarloop].
“Australia fires are an ever-present, every-year phenomenon”, said Mark Cochrane, a geospatial scientist at South Dakota State University.
About 835 people have registered at two evacuation centres.
“Unless you are ready and prepared to actively defend your property, evacuate to the south via the South Western Highway if safe to do so”, the DFES said.
Western Australia is continuing to battle severe bushfires that have entered their fifth day, with reports that two people have died but with the remaining missing persons being accounted for.
She said the gas bottles outside the house would have blown up and the family was concerned Taylor had been killed.
“We will look at that”, he said.
“Some of the challenges are not yet over and some of the grieving and some of the impacts on the community are going to impact on them for a long time to come”.
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“There’ll be trees that’ll be smouldering for months on end and until we get that winter drizzling rain, this fire won’t be out and we’ll be living with the potential of further outbreaks”.
