Perth families return to gutted homes and lost pets

“If you’re quarantining and you’re required to evacuate you should just evacuate… Now is the time to give some thought to what’s an alternative place that they can go,” he said on Wednesday morning.

“What we don’t want is indecision from people about whether they should evacuate or not, when we require them to evacuate. So that evacuation overrides any quarantining requirements that people may have.”

Commissioner Klemm said conditions had been better on Tuesday night, allowing firefighters to track the blaze’s southern flank.

“The rapid damage assessment teams have continued their work overnight. I can report the tally of homes lost now sits at 71. At this stage, there’s no evidence of loss of life. We haven’t had people coming us to saying that they haven’t been able to contact a certain person,” he said.

“We’re still having difficulties with the tracking on the northern part of the fire and that is a concern ahead of some difficult conditions today where we’re going to see the wind shift to the south-east.”

He said people needed to remain vigilant. “We don’t want people to become complacent. We’re into day three of this fire today and it is going to continue to be a challenging fire for us for at least the next three or four or five days,” he said.

In Noble Falls a family of four lost everything, with 21-year-old Slayde Ettridge the first to see his home razed on Tuesday morning.

His father Mucka and sister Kody were away for work, and he and his mother Kymmie were lucky to have time to evacuate on Monday.

Slayde stayed with his friend Julie Read and her son in Chidlow overnight before returning to his house in the morning, finding it burnt to the ground.

“This morning they have received the devastating news that everything has gone,” Mrs Read said.

“Including vehicles that weren’t able to be moved. I gave him a big hug and he cried. They’re obviously very stressed at the minute, it’s still got to sink in.

“It is a helpless feeling hugging someone while saying sorry and not being able to make it better for them.”

The family are staying with a relative in Scarborough.

Mrs Read, who has lived in the area for a long time, said the fire had been different to the many others she had witnessed.

“This fire has moved very quickly and been quite scary,” she said.

A 10-minute drive south in Wooroloo, Elaine Palfrey has lost her pet cat and chickens as well as the house she, her partner and their children moved into recently.

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“She just bought it a couple of months ago and had only just finished setting up the house and kids’ toys and everything, planted fruit trees, made it her little piece of country,” friend and colleague Renee Dahl said.

“She had trialled living in the country for a while in the Serpentine-Jarrahdale area, and then found this place they really wanted.”

The couple and their children left as soon as they saw the smoke, even though the fire alerts had not yet been issued.

“They just had instinct kick in,” Ms Dahl said.

“They didn’t take anything. They left within minutes. They packed a few clothes.

“She just said she had a mental blank and said let’s just get out.

“They are staying with her parents. I spoke to her earlier today and she is doing better than I was expecting, she is making a few jokes; but she is absolutely devastated.”

Friends are running online fundraisers for the Ettridge family and the Palfrey family to help them get back on their feet.