Emergency warnings have been downgraded for four destructive bushfires in WA's south after they razed several properties and critically injured one man over a horror weekend for fire crews.
The blazes burned through more than 60,000 hectares of bushland, destroyed at least six homes and caused widespread power outages for thousands of residents.
A fire burning near Bridgetown in the South West was downgraded this morning to a watch and act level, as was a blaze in the Corrigin and Bruce Rock area in WA's agricultural Wheatbelt region.
The fire near Corrigin and Bruce Rock alone burnt through 40,000 hectares of land.
Aided by dropping temperatures and some rain, a bushfire that had been burning in Denmark in the Great Southern since Friday morning was downgraded yesterday, and has since been lowered to an advice level.
A second Wheatbelt blaze near Narrogin was also downgraded overnight.
More than 1,000 people have been involved in fighting or managing the fires, with just under half of them still on the fire grounds.
Four homes lost near Denmark, one near Bridgetown
Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) Commissioner Darren Klemm said rapid damage assessment teams had confirmed four homes had been lost in the Denmark fire and one near Bridgetown.
Work was ongoing to assess damage caused by the Corrigin fire.
Commissioner Klemm said the Denmark fire was not being treated as suspicious, but the arson squad was heading to Bridgetown.
Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson encouraged people across the state to remain vigilant.
"The weather conditions will be milder today, but I want to emphasise that there is still a real threat to lives and to communities and to homes," he said.
It remains unclear when residents in Hester near Bridgetown will be able to return home, with toxic smoke from treated timber still a concern.
One Bridgetown resident was sent on the 270-kilometre journey to Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth in a critical condition after being burned while defending his property.
The local hospital was evacuated on Saturday, with patients and staff yet to return.
Corrigin farmland 'burnt bare'
The bushfire in the Corrigin and Bruce Rock area tore through a vast area of farmland and is believed to have torched at least one home.
"We've lost a lot of farmland and one house we know of, other sheds, and bits and pieces in the district," Shire of Corrigin President Des Hickey said.
He said the area would be on high alert for a while to come.
"I'm sitting here looking at a large house shed that's still burning, the paddocks are bare, absolutely burnt bare," he told ABC Radio Perth on Monday morning.
"The local area of Bilbarin, I don't think there's much left in there. What used to be the town, there used to be a hall and a house in town, that's all been burnt to the ground."
Mr Hickey said his primary concern was to protect Corrigin residents, saying everything else could be repaired or replaced.
Injured livestock in the region have had to be euthanised, with the number of animals killed or injured still being determined.
Bruce Rock Shire President Stephen Strange said teams were moving through the area quantifying losses.
Feed has also been lost after a number of sheds were destroyed.
Danger not over yet: DFES
DFES said there were no longer any communities under threat from fire in the Wheatbelt.
DFES incident controller Mark Bowen said firefighters near Corrigin and Bruce Rock were now working to contain the flames.
But he said westerly winds were creating areas of concern on the eastern sides of the fire zones, and the danger was not yet over, with crews expected to be on the ground for several days.
DFES duty assistant commissioner Rick Curtis said more than 1,300 personnel had been involved in battling all four WA bushfires so far.
"The last time we had multiple events of this significance was two of these sized fires in 2015."
Assistant Commissioner Curtis said 36 firefighting personnel from New South Wales had arrived overnight and were being prepared for deployment.
Help for hungry firefighters
Among those helping at Bruce Rock in the Wheatbelt was Rapid Relief Team leader Elton Fawkes, who was busy making food for emergency responders on the fire front.
He says he and his colleagues made 340 burgers yesterday, were making another 250 today and expected to produce 400 meals tonight to supply those tackling the blazes.
He said he had not seen anything like it for years.
"Probably not for many years at this scale, because we're talking about three main fire fronts, all within a couple of kilometres of each other," he said.
"It's full on."
Fires 'more intense': Klemm
Commissioner Klemm said the frequency and intensity of weather events in the state were results of a "changing climate".
"An example of that [is] on Friday night the fire in Denmark doubled in size overnight. For one of the most southern parts of our state, to have a fire double in size overnight is not territory we have been in often before."
Commissioner Klemm said the fire near Bridgetown also spread rapidly after it had been reported just after noon on Saturday.
"Really rapid rates of spread were fed back to us in terms of reports from the fire ground ... particularly difficult conditions, 42 degrees in Bridgetown yesterday, minus one dew point and really strong winds which made this fire incredibly difficult to control," he said.
"For an area that’s in the southern part of the state, [that] generally gets really cool at night, I would say it’s unusual that we would have those sorts of problems."
In December senior firefighters told the ABC that bushfire behaviour was changing, with relentless winds and dry conditions meaning they get less reprieve at night to get on top of out-of-control blazes.
The Bureau of Metereology and the CSIRO both say climate change has led to longer bushfire seasons and an increase in the average number of high-risk fire days.
