A bushfire tearing through tree tops and threatening the tiny South West town of Northcliffe is the biggest fire risk the state has faced in decades, a veteran firefighter says.
Roger Underwood, who has been fighting fires for more than 50 years, fears the lightning-sparked blaze could continue to burn out of control until it hits the Southern Ocean.
Mr Underwood said the fire was burning in extremely dense Karri forrest, thick with trees up to 70 metres high.
"It could be really bad," he said.
"It's probably the biggest fire risk problem we've had in 50 years."
He said it was fortunate the isolated town, about 350km south of Perth and enveloped by national forest, had only 400 people.
Showers forecast for later on Tuesday could help firefighting efforts.
Even so, they had a huge job ahead of them building containment lines and mopping up.
The Department of Fire and Emergency Services said the spread of the fire had slowed because of light winds but, conversely, strong winds associated with thunderstorms could cause areas of extreme fire behaviour.
For up-to-date alerts on fire conditions in WA, go to the DFES website or follow DFES on Twitter.
The view from Northcliffe Town Hall
@GWN7News
#wafires
pic.twitter.com/Xyz93bKKoK — Tasha Campbell (@campbell_tash)
February 2, 2015
About 130 firefighters and 130 support personnel are working to protect life, property and critical infrastructure in Northcliffe, including the Parkview, Double Bridge, and Bracken Rise Estates.
Mr Underwood said that sized crew represented "a drop in the ocean to the sort of work that's required".
"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," he said.
"You've got to work the sides of the fire and bring in bulldozers. There's no way you can stop the head fire. That's unstoppable."
Very worrying scenes from Northcliffe General Store when we arrived yesterday. Thankfully the town has stayed safe
pic.twitter.com/PCOcFOdr8J — Bridgetown Police (@BridgetownPol)
February 2, 2015
Mr Underwood, who is the chairman of prescribed burning advocacy group Bushfire Front, said the state had entered an era of very poor bushfire management.
WA had led the world in prescribed burning programs in the 1970s and 1980s but that was no longer the case.
"Unless you have control of the fuels, in an Australian environment you're doomed to savage bushfires," he said.
People are being urged to leave Northcliffe, where an emergency warning remains in place.
The fire has jumped Windy Harbour Road, Double Bridges Road and Ladhams Road, and is burning into properties between Guernsey Gully Road and Summertime Track.
A community meeting is scheduled at the emergency relocation centre at Pemberton Mill Hall on Brockman Street in Pemberton at noon.