Geraldton bushfire: Residents forced to use garden hoses to defend home from suspicious blaze

A home has been destroyed but firefighters have saved an aged care facility and a primary school directly in the firing line of a ferocious bushfire believed to have been deliberately lit near Geraldton.

The blaze was reported at 10.30am on Sunday and had residents in Waggrakine and Moresby as well as Bluff Point, Spalding and Sunset Beach, under evacuation warnings until conditions eased on Monday afternoon.

The West Australian understands the cause of the fire is being treated as suspicious.

Bush fire service, career fire and rescue service, volunteer fire and rescue, volunteer fire and emergency service and parks and wildlife service firefighters are at the scene actively fighting the blaze.

Water bombers have also been sent to assist ground crews.

Emergency Services Minister Paul Papalia said firefighters had fought relentlessly to stop the blaze from claiming far more properties, including the Nazareth residential aged care facility and Waggrakine Primary School, which sat directly in the firing line.

“Since Friday, the community and our Department of Fire and Emergency Services and other first responders have been tackling a series of fires, direct threat to hundreds of homes, community assets and some vulnerable people in the community, and they’ve done an extraordinary job,” he said.

“Early this morning, there was an incredibly confronting situation where 80 kilometre an hour easterly winds whipped up the fire and headed it towards the Nazareth residential aged care facility, where there are obviously vulnerable elderly people.

“An incredible effort this morning went into stopping that fire and keeping those people safe.

“Waggrakine Primary School was also saved. It was in the path of the fire yesterday.”

There are currently seven aircraft, four water bombers, 55 fire trucks and cars and 200 personnel on the ground in Geraldton.

Mr Papalia said WA Police’s arson squad, together with local detectives, have already begun investigating the cause of the blaze with early indications showing the fires were likely arson.

“There is some suspicion that some of these fires may have been initiated intentionally,” he said.

“That is appalling behaviour, totally unacceptable... people must not be so stupid as to light fires intentionally.

“Strike Force Vulcan are going to be focused on identifying the culprits and bringing them to justice.

“The local detectives here are already investigating, and there are additional personnel, detectives coming from Perth.”

Incident controller Brent Allen confirmed one house was a “total loss” late on Sunday afternoon.

He said the blaze remained uncontained and uncontrolled, and said crews would be “up against it all day today” with strong winds and temperatures forecast to reach 42C.

“We have managed to hold the fire up,” he said.

“With this easterly wind its been heading along the river, it’s been following the track of the river … so we’ve had crews working either side of the river.

“We’re going to be here for a number of days. Our priorities at the moment are protecting lives and property.

“We’ve got really difficult conditions with the temperatures and the wind.

“One of the biggest things with the wind is it changes dramatically throughout the day, which means the fire front will be consistently changing through the day.”

Incident controller Brent Allen confirmed one house was a “total loss” late on Sunday afternoon, the home owner, Nick Morgan, was not home at the time.

By the time Mr Morgan got back to Geraldton, his home was reduced to ash.

“I’ve lost my home, all my belongings and my cat,” he told the ABC on Monday.

“I’ve got nothing now, I have to start from scratch.”

Mr Morgan struggled to come to terms with the idea that someone may have deliberately caused the utter destruction of his home.

“If it was deliberately lit, karma is looking for them,” he said.

“It’s a terrible thing, to light up a fire like this, you take away somebodies life, you take away their loved ones, their pets, their possessions.

“Was it really worth it just for a thrill of seeing something burn, are they that callous?”

Mr Allen described Sunday’s situation as “pretty horrific”, with the blaze coming just metres away from hundreds of properties.

“Particularly on Nerrel and Tappak streets and on Chapman Valley Road, crews probably spent two hours yesterday afternoon actively going house to house and fighting individual fires,” he said.

“It was in people’s backyards, so within metres of houses.

“It was pretty horrific. All our crews were working safely . . . but it would have been a pretty full-on experience for both the residents and for our responders.

“For the crews on the ground it was just a mad scramble going from door to door responding to triple-0 calls and just trying to defend individual properties.

“It was inspirational for me to see the way the crews were working together to protect strangers’ homes and lives.”

Park Avenue resident John Hood arrived home from work at around 6am to find firefighters surrounding his Sunset Beach property — directly opposite Chapman Regional River Park where the blaze was burning quickly.

“We had heaps of firies out the front of the property, on the side too,” he said.

Mr Hood said embers were blowing across the road from the park and sparking spot fires throughout his yard.

“I had fires starting up all over the yard and I was just putting them out with the hose. It was pretty effective,” he said.

“I basically grabbed the hose and stood out the front. We were ready to leave if we had to.”

He praised the coordination of the firefighting crews working in the area.

“I was really impressed — they seemed really coordinated today.”

With shifting winds posing an ongoing threat, Mr Hood said the situation remained unpredictable.

“It’s just a waiting game now. Watching the wind. It’s the southerly’s.”

He added that crews had been clearing thick vegetation beside his home.

“They’ve been out the side clearing all those trees as it was pretty overgrown and definitely in need of some maintenance — and it looks like it’s now a pretty effective firebreak,” he said.

Waggrakine resident Jesse Pickett said he first realised something was wrong on Sunday when he heard aircraft passing low over his home.

“I thought it was just another fire,” he said.

But when he followed the smell of smoke towards the Spalding Golf Club, it became clear the situation was escalating.

Mr Pickett said the blaze appeared small and under control when he first arrived, with police reassuring onlookers it was unlikely to spread.

“Then, about ten or fifteen minutes later, everything just got darker,” he said.

“The smoke turned black, and you could hear the fire getting closer. It went from crackling to this big burst of flames out of nowhere.”

He moved to higher ground near Waggrakine to film the approaching front, but within minutes the fire had jumped the river and was pushing towards nearby homes.

“By the time I left, it had already crossed Chapman Valley Road,” he said.

“That’s when I knew I had to get home, get the kids and my family, and leave. It was pretty scary.”

Crews have been working through the night, with relief crews arriving from Perth on Monday to help fatigued first-responders, who have been responding to multiple fires in the Greater Geraldton area over the past four days.

Mr Allen said property damage had been “contained and quite minimal” and said he was aware of a “couple of sheds and outbuildings damaged”.

He praised crews for saving Waggrakine Primary School, adding the fire had burned about 130 hectares.

“As far as I’m aware there’s been no damage to school property apart from some vegetation like trees and some of the garden beds,” he said.

St John WA confirmed no-one had been injured.

The bushfire is currently at a watch and act level.

“There is a possible threat to lives and homes as a fire is burning in the area and conditions are changing,” a DFES spokesperson said.

“If you have left the area, it is unsafe to return due to fallen trees, fallen powerlines and other dangers created by the fire.

“If you have remained in the area, stay alert and monitor your surroundings as conditions could change.

“If you are actively defending your property, continue to patrol and put out spot fires.”

The Department of Communities has opened an evacuation centre at QEII Seniors and Community Centre and Northampton Recreation Centre.

Western Power also confirmed up to 605 homes and businesses in Waggrakine had lost power as a result of the blaze.

“The network operations centre has back-fed power supply where possible and safe to do so,” a DFES spokesperson said.

“Some customers won’t be able to be restored until the fire has passed.”

Greater Geraldton City mayor Jerry Clune described the past 24 hours as “harrowing” and warned locals to stay alert.

“The fire has arced up again this morning, there are extremely north-easterly winds and it’s pushed in a westerly direction, so all the suburbs on the western side we are asking to keep cautious,” he told 6PR on Monday morning.

“There are some (locals that have been told) to leave now in some cases.”

Mr Clune said the incident was constantly changing, and urged residents bound by road closures to “hang tight”.

“Just hang tight until it does clear, I know that some roads are open, it is a changing thing... just hang on,” he said.

“With fires you have just got to be patient and sit out the danger-zone until it is cleared.

“Sometimes it is a little longer than usual, but it’s hot today, so (we’re) asking people to be cautious.”

Waggrakine Primary School, Walkaway Primary School and Northampton District High School have been closed on Monday.

Some local roads were closed including:

• North West Coastal Highway from Green Street to Chapman Valley Road

• Chapman Valley Road from North West Coastal Highway to David Road

• Hall Road from Chapman Valley Road to Collins Road

• Constantine Road

• David Road

• Adelaide Street

• Beattie Road

• Brisbane Street

• Nerrel Street

• Astron Place

• Robyn Place

• Pargi Close

• Yarraman Road

• Swan Drive

• Crowtherton Street

The mercury in Geraldton reached 40.6C at Geraldton Airport on Monday.

Premier Roger Cook on Monday morning described the bushfire as “very live and very dangerous”, and confirmed Emergency Services Minister Paul Papalia was travelling to Geraldton on Monday to assist with the effort.

“Disturbingly, we’ve got a significant fire in the Geraldton area, that fire has escalated overnight and we have crews, both on the ground and in the air, fighting that fire under conditions which have deteriorated significantly — high winds, very high temperatures,” he said.

“We understand that there’s been a loss of one home, but we’re still awaiting further advice from DFES about any other property damage.

“Three primary schools have been shut and there are homes without power . . . it was thousands of homes yesterday, it’s down to around about 600 today.

“We thank again, all the members of our volunteer and career firefighting teams . . . it’s the first day of summer, and not surprisingly, I think we all need to be aware of this (fire).”