Perth Hills bushfire downgraded as authorities confirm building, fences and sheds lost by fire

The arson squad is investigating a raging bushfire in Perth’s north-east that destroyed a community building as the threat of the blaze is reduced to a watch and act level.

A watch and act warning remains in place for people in Red Hill, Millendon, Herne Hill and Baskerville, authorities warning there is a “threat to lives and homes” after a bushfire ignited in the Perth hills on Tuesday afternoon.

The fire was reported about 12.40pm near Toodyay Road in Gidgegannup and quickly escalated, fanned by strong winds.

Incident controller Murray McBride confirmed a community building belonging to the City of Swan had been destroyed by the fire.

Mr McBride said nobody was living in the building at the time.

While the exact use of the building is undetermined, Mr McBride said the structure was previously a home that had been gifted to the council.

He said the police arson squad are investigating the cause of the blaze, which is believed to be suspicious.

The fire also destroyed three outbuildings, such as sheds.

The blaze was downgraded from an emergency level on Wednesday afternoon — more than 24 hours after the blaze was first reported.

The threat of the blaze — which is uncontained and uncontrolled — still remains as more than 100 firetrucks still helping to douse the blaze.

DFES expects that some roads of west of Campersic road will be reopened by 8pm on Wednesday while the remainder of roads oepned by 12pm on Thursday.

As of Wednesday morning, the fire has burnt about 680ha. It is moving slowly in a westerly direction.

More than 200 firefighters are on the scene tirelessly working to bring the blaze under control.

Mr McBride said the “95 per cent” of the blaze had been tracked by firefighters — who have been using six pieces of heavy machinery and aerial bombers.

DFES says seven power poles were destroyed, leaving 132 homes without power on Tuesday.

On Wednesday afternoon 10 properties were without electricity as Western Power works to restore damaged infrastructure.

It comes as DFES continues to limit the disturbance of soil on Aboriginal sacred land in the fire zone.

It was a sleepless night for many residents, including Vanessa Papich, 55, who told The West Australian that she feared the worst when her nephew jumped containment lines to rescue a horse they were unable to evacuate from her burning yard.

“I didn’t know he’d gone in, and then we got this phone call that he was up the back (of the property),” she said.

Mrs Papich was then forced to wait alongside police for her nephew to reemerge from the home.

“I’m trying to see this horse and him coming down the street but I couldn’t see him..... until he came at the end with the horse and he was waving.

“My daughter and I were just crying because we had the worst fear imaginable of leaving someone behind.

“As you can see with the fire, he wouldn’t have had much of a chance, but I’m so happy he did what he did.”

Mrs Papich’s nephew — who wished to remain anonymous — said the flames were as “tall as trees” as “five or six” firetrucks worked in the backyard.

“It was coming full flight, it was literally Magneto-type fire going through there, it was quite dangerous.

“It was full on, there were around five or six trucks trying to fight it but they couldn’t do anything more.”

The horse has since been taken to a nearby relative’s home after its lucky escape.

Among the structures damaged was Mrs Papich’s sea container which sat in her backyard and stored her wedding dress.

“My wedding dress that my mom made for me (was in there), I’ve been married 32 years.... she passed away seven years ago.

“I don’t even know the house will be standing, but it’s material, I’ve got my family, I’ve got my dogs, my cats, my animals and that’s what matters to me.”

Herne Hill resident Hanna Holdsworth said she didn’t sleep on Tuesday night.

Instead, she set up a spot in her loungeroom with her windows open as she cautiously watched the red glow over the hill her property borders.

“Seeing the flames, it was glowing, it didn’t look like it was 12 o’clock at night, it was terrifying,” she said.

“And you could see the flames so detailed too from the house. Even from two or three kilometres away you could see the flames.

“Thankfully because I was sorting everything out and I was a bit erratic with everything, I had Courtney here and my friend Gwen to keep track of it while I was running around like a headless chook.

Ms Holdsworth said after she saw the flames licking over the hills at about 3pm on Tuesday, she evacuated her four horses and donkey.

“It was progressing quite quickly,” she said. “We’ve never had the flames come over the top of the hills before so the fact that it was already coming down and getting close to dark — when you can’t get aerial support — it was pretty scary.”

Campersic Road resident Jack Rogers was also forced to evacuate his six horses once he noticed the blaze moving towards the back of his property.

“Lucky we didn’t have to leave but it was still a pretty scary night . . . It was pretty orange and the flames lit up,” Mr Rogers said.

“We were very lucky with a lot of firefighters and support . . .We dodged a bullet there.”

Mr Rogers said his plans for Wednesday were to ensure his fire breaks were intact and remove fuel loads from his property.

“We have just gone around and made sure everything is still how we want it. We made a pretty good bushfire plan so we’re pretty comfortable ourselves, so we got a property that we set up so we didn’t have to stress about this,” he said.

DFES Acting Superintendent Paul Postma on Wednesday morning said WA’s large air tanker and the National large air tanker had joined the fight.

“They’ll be doing a lot of retardant drops through the bush area, trying to contain the fire and preparing for the extreme winds that we have got forecast today and the firefighting conditions that are going to be significantly difficult for crews on the ground,” he told morning radio.

On Tuesday, DFES revealed firefighters had been delayed in their attempts to contain the fire amid fears machinery could disturb sacred Aboriginal land.

It was said it could take “three to four days” to control the blaze without the machinery.

“We have had to stop tracking with machines at the moment because we have some Aboriginal cultural sites in the (fire zone),” DFES incident controller Murray McBride said.

“We have got Indigenous liaisons working with us at the moment to identify those sites and that will dictate where we can put those machines.

“There are sites that have scattered artefacts and we have to be careful of that.”

Mr McBride said the lack of machinery could actually result in greater damage to the sacred sites but was not preventing crews from saving lives and property.

“Life will always be our main priority,” he said.

DFES used 13 water bombers, on Tuesday night, with the aerial support redeployed on Wednesday morning.