Fire Commissioner Wayne Gregson said firefighters were getting exhausted but they were boosted by the arrival of more firefighters from New South Wales.
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Four firefighters have also sustained minor injuries as they tackled the blaze, which has scorched 125,000 acres of farmland and forest so far.
Harvey residents flee advancing fire front: As the Waroona bushfire burns into its third day, there are concerns that the townsite of Harvey could be next in the firing line.
Although weather conditions have eased slightly with bushfires gradually moving in an easterly direction, emergency warnings are still in place for East of Waroona, Hamel and Yarloop and surrounding areas in the Shires of Harvey and Waroona.
Overnight the fire ripped through the small town of Yarloop, approximately 120 kilometers south of Perth with population 545, destroying almost 95 homes, the local post office, hotel and the town’s fire station, among other significant buildings.
“It’s just around fatigue management, there’s some very exhausted fire fighters out there in need of some relief and we want to maintain the capacity for Western Australia”.
Reports said lightning struck an evacuation centre in the town, injuring a man in his 50s and cutting power.
People are often reported unaccounted for while evacuating from fire zones but usually turn up unharmed.
He said “very little of Yarloop” remains, and everything around his home, which he managed to save, were “burnt to a cinder”.
“I went in first thing the next morning at like 4am to look at his house, and there was no house”, Phillips said.
Mr Reynolds has driven through Yarloop several times and said the impact on the town, where 143 properties were destroyed, had been devastating.
Mr Phillips said there had been no door-knocking by police in Yarloop but attributed no blame to the local sergeant, who he said was doing his best to his own house, which was eventually lost in the fire.
The Yarloop Volunteer Bushfire Brigade vented their frustration on Facebook, claiming they received no assistance, door-knocks or warnings for people to leave.
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The DFES warns that the fire remains uncontained and not yet controlled.
