General Interest – Fires in WA

Thee following was received from Neill Dorset
You might be interested in the Link re the fires over the weekend in Perth.  We are fine here as the main bush disaster was up in the hills in the Mundaring/Mt Helena area. It is just as well we don’t live up there any more and lucky that we had sold our place in Mt Helena as it was in line with the fire ( for the second time) . We don’t know if the new owners lost it yet. Friends of ours and Lana’s were all evacuated or on Immediate Evacuation instructions and the lady whom Lynne works with, the fire came onto their property and the rear of their section is burnt- gone but the house is fine .
Once it gets into the gum trees it takes on a life of its own and is terrifying to watch it take hold. Here in the Perth City area there were three other ‘bush/scrub’ fires which had fire folk stretched to the absolute limit.
We think we are safe living down here on the ‘flats’ as we call our area here in Middle Swan/Midland but we had a bush fire just around the corner from this place on Friday with it coming right up to the back fences of some places. Once again the police and fire are unable to say how these fires started ..but once again the suspicion is ‘deliberately lit’ actions of another one of God’s Poor Unfortunate souls!!!!!!
The latest is that 52 houses have been destroyed and they are still checking the area in and around the area where Lynne’s work colleague (Marilyn) lives. There are some very lucky people up there this morning as they realise just how close they came to losing their places but unfortunately an awful lot of distraught people.
Flames as high as 20 metres and as fast moving as ‘ an express train’ were recorded.
These fires are ‘bloody terrible’ and having been in a house fire as a kid….when a fire takes on a mind of its own it is bloody scary.. You don’t wait to be told to go in my book….houses can be rebuilt but not your life – just grab the important things and run like hell. I have the utmost admiration for the fire-fighters trying to fight these fires in those conditions. Temperatures that day, although the official mark was supposedly 43.5, it was well into the 50’s and higher up in that bush area when the fire was burning! Click HERE  to bring up the latest photos of some of 52 houses so far known to have been destroyed .