Fires that tore through Western Australia's agricultural heartland overnight scorching farmland and destroying homes still pose a threat.
Twin fires hit the Wheatbelt, about 250km east of Perth, yesterday afternoon as catastrophic fire conditions throughout the region brought gusty winds and temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius.
The bushfires came after two other major fires destroyed homes in southern WA on Saturday in Denmark and Bridgetown in a horrific weekend for firefighters.
On Sunday afternoon, four emergency bushfires were burning at once across the south of the state.
Today it has been revealed the fires have burned through more than 60,000 hectares of bushland, destroyed at least six homes and damaged businesses, sparking widespread power outages for thousands of residents.
DFES Duty Assistant Commissioner Rick Curtis said the fire was still posing a threat.
"The fire size inclusive of one just to the west near Quairading is in the vicinity of 35,000 hectares."
"That is a significant fire print."
Mr Curtis said the coming hours might see some change to the fire's severity.
"Over the next 12 or 24 hours we will see some traction gain on that fire and with that we will start to see some retraction or contraction of the emergency warning areas."
Residents are being warned the road network remains closed while safety inspections are carried out.
Mr Curtis said more than 1,300 personnel had been involved in battling the bushfires so far.
"We've had over a thousand firefighters in the last 48 hours on firegrounds across the south-west of the state," he told ABC Radio Perth.
"The last time we had multiple events of this significance was two of these sized fires in 2015."
The largest bushfire in the Wheatbelt is burning in the Shires of Quairading, Bruce Rock, Corrigin, Kondinin, and Kulin with 140 firefighters battling the blaze at its peak, many local farmers.
The fire tore through farmland fuelled by gusty westerly winds brought by a cold front.
'It was horrendous'
Shire of Corrigin president Des Hickey said the bushfire was ferocious with flames more than 15 metres high.
"We thought the two fires might link up and head towards the town, but the wind shift gave us a reprieve," he said.
"We've lost a lot of farmland and one house we know of, other sheds, and bits and pieces in the district."
"It's a horrendous situation when you're getting 70km-plus winds and a fire front probably in excess of 4km long.
A second bushfire started in the Shire of Narrogin and threatened lives and homes, with the town site of Wickepin under threat.
More than 100 firefighters battled the bushfire as resources were stretched across the region.
An evacuation centre has been set up in Pingelly Recreation Centre.
Several schools have been closed in the Wheatbelt for Monday.
In the state's South West, a bushfire burning since Saturday afternoon has been downgraded from an emergency warning to a watch and act level after threatening lives and homes near Bridgetown.
The fire, which has burned through more than 2,200 hectares, was contained overnight with 200 firefighters on the ground.
NSW specialists arrive in WA
Assistant Commissioner Curtis said 36 firefighting personnel from New South Wales had arrived overnight and were being prepared for deployment.
Cooler temperatures are expected to ease fire conditions across the South West, but gusty winds are forecasted to persist.
Mr Curtis said while there was a chance the current emergency warnings would be downgraded today, catastrophic fire conditions continued in parts of WA's south east.
"That trough is now moving well to the east of the state. We've still got some catastrophic fire weather out in the Eucla, and our Goldfields-Midlands region is really focusing on supporting that area," he said.
DFES Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Wade said resources were also coming from across the state.
"Crews from Kimberley, Pilbara, and specialist incident management teams from New South Wales have arrived," he said.
A watch and act alert remains in place for parts of the Shire of Denmark in WA's south where at least four homes have been lost in a bushfire that started on Friday morning.
Angus Armstrong farms 30 kilometres east of Narrogin at Nomans Lake.
He said he was taking stock of the damage today.
"This morning, it's quite depressing as you see it in daylight," he said.
"We were euthanasing sheep into dark last night seeing the reality of that in the morning. It's pretty devastating, really."
Mr Armstrong said 200 to 300 sheep were lost in total, and he also lost a small shed late last night.
