‘Unstoppable’ WA bushfire could burn all way to coast

Published: February 4, 2015

The bushfire crisis in Western Australia’s south is continuing to worsen, with fears now growing that one of the out-of-control blazes could burn all the way to the coast.

As a fire that was sparked by lightning at Shannon National Park on Friday advances rapidly, the 600 or so residents of the Northcliffe township have been told their homes are ‘undefendable’. Householders have been urged to leave to the north towards Pemberton if safe to do so. The blaze has so far burnt 25,000 hectares, with the rate of spread in some areas of the fire in excess of 500 metres per hour, with spot fires starting up to 100 metres ahead of the front.

Residents are reportedly being told the fire could burn up to 100,000 hectares and Pemberton – the current evacuation meeting point – may also have to be evacuated.

It goes without saying that grey nomads or any other travellers in the region have to keep themselves fully informed of the status of the fire and exercise extreme caution.

WA’s Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) has also upgraded the alert level for the southern part of Lower Hotham to an emergency due to intense fire behaviour and ‘hop-overs’ on the eastern and western sides.

Roger Underwood, who has been fighting fires for more than 50 years, said fires were burning in dense Karri forest where the trees are up to 70 metres high. He fears the Northcliffe blaze could continue to burn out of control until it hits the Southern Ocean.

“There’s no way you can stop the head fire. That’s unstoppable,” he said. “Fires in the Karri forest are not put out by men on the ground or by airplanes – they’re only put out by a change in the weather.”

Meteorologists say today is expected to be very hot in the area, and the Department of Fire and Emergency Services says forecast thunderstorms “could cause areas of extreme fire behaviour”.

Almost 3000 bushfires have broken out around WA since January 1, with more than 120 sparked by lightning in the past week.

The 300 firefighters in the area will soon be joined by almost 150 firefighters from Victoria.

  • Are you in the WA’s south? Have you been affected by the bushfires? Comment below.
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