Bindoon and Gingin fires: Cause of bushfire raging near Bindoon revealed after it destroyed two homes

Authorities have confirmed the bushfire raging near Bindoon has destroyed two homes, as they downgrade the fire and revealed lightning was the likely cause of the blaze.

Firefighters remain at the scene of a string of bushfires in Perth’s northern suburbs after an emergency warning was issued on Sunday.

At least nine outbuildings and two homes have been destroyed in the bushfire.

Department of Fire and Emergency Services commissioner Darren Klemm said a further six outbuildings, including sheds, have received moderate damage.

A further one home received moderate damage and about 2900 hectares have been burned in the blaze.

Residents whose homes have been impacted have been notified by DFES.

“It is vital everybody in those affected areas remains vigilant, keep abreast with the warnings on emergency WA,” Commissioner Klemm said.

Emergency services minister Stephen Dawson said “erratic wind conditions” will put firefighters to the test as they continue to fight the Bindoon blaze throughout Monday afternoon.

“Our thoughts are with those people who have lost property,” he said.

“We had scorching weather conditions and challenging winds which ended up being a nightmare as we tried to battle the major fires that we had across the state.”

“There are currently around 220 volunteer and career firefighters out on the ground, along with the aerial support which is working hard to build fire breaks and to contain these fires”

Across the state, recent bushfires in Gingin, Bindoon and Chittering have burned through around 6000 hectares collectively.

DFES superintendent Craig Garrett said firefighters were showing positive signs towards controlling the Bindoon fire.

“While it is still uncontrolled the positive is we have a track going around it,” he said at a community meeting.

“There are large air tankers dropping retardant to make sure we don’t have a breakage towards town.”

He said DFES and Western Power needed to assess the safety of roads and properties before roads could reopen to residents.

Western Power spokesman Gavin Morris said 80 homes were still without power.

“We just received access to Bindoon so our focus is to make sure houses are safe,”he said.

“We don’t know the extent of the damage at this stage so we can’t give a timeline but we have teams ready.”

A “watch and act” alert is now in place for residents bounded by Brand Highway to the west, Honeycomb Road, Mooliabeenee Road and Ashworth Road to the north, Crest Hill Road to the east and Gray Road and Creighton Road to the south in parts of Bambun, Bindoon, Coonabidgee, Gingin, Lennard Brook, Mooliabeenee and Moondah.

After concerns the Gingin townsite was under threat on Sunday night, and confirmation of at least one property destroyed, a change of fire direction has seen Bindoon move to an advice level.

Hundreds of firefighters were battling the blaze, which had burned through 2900ha of land, with officials urging residents to evacuate.

Initially believed to have been under control, a shift in wind conditions late on Sunday saw the bushfire tear through bush and properties in Lennard Brook south of Mooliabeenee Road.

Department of Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm said while the cause of the blaze was still under investigation it was likely lightning was the culprit.

We’ve got fire investigators out there, but it would be fair to say there has been a lot of fire activity over the weekend and the majority of that would be because of the lightning storms (on Friday evening),” he told ABC Radio.

“There was a pretty significant fire in Cunderdin yesterday, a whole series of fires through the Wheatbelt down through Kojonup and as far south as Chains Beach.”

Gingin president Wayne Fewster said he was hopeful firefighters could get the blaze under control.

“The fire is about 90 per cent tracked but we are trying to tidy it up as it is a pretty ugly fire boundary. We need to straighten a few edges so we haven’t got pockets that could cause a problem,” he said.

“We’re pretty hopeful we’ll get around it and get it under control but there is going to be winds and temperatures of up to 40C later today, which could pose an issue.”

He confirmed there had been property loss with crews on site to assess the damage.

“The support has been unbelievable and it’s situations like this that really make us proud of what the community can achieve,” he said.

Local Tia Kennedy was waiting to hear if her property was still standing after she had to evacuate on Sunday.

“The fire was all around us, we were surrounded,” she said.

“When I was getting my stuff the helicopters were there so I just thought I need to get out.”

Jim Selkirk and his wife also had to evacuate after seeing flames near their property on Sunday.

“We had the family up and we were in the pool at about 4pm and there was black soot raining down on us,” he said.

“The next morning I went to put some more water in the pool and I thought ‘we’re in trouble’ and 10 minutes later we were told to get out.

“There were flames in the trees.”

The Department of Communities has opened an evacuation centre at Bendigo Centre Recreation Grounds in Gingin.

Firefighters have been bolstered by the arrival of the NSW Government’s large air tanker, which will be based in Perth for the next few days.

“With the majority of NSW currently experiencing wet weather, the RFS Large Air Tanker ‘Marie Bashir’ has been deployed to Western Australia,” the NSW RFS tweeted.

“Over the coming days, our LAT will be based near Perth, providing assistance to local firefighters as they deal with several large fires.”

The blaze comes as the United Professional Firefighters Union said the Cockburn station was currently without one of its primary response vehicles due to DFES being unprepared.

“It took one emergency-level bushfire, one breakdown of a standby truck and now there are no tankers of that specification available for Cockburn; instead it’s been replaced with a light tanker that has a far reduced capability,” WA union secretary Clem Chan said.

DFES deputy commissioner Craig Waters said stations share around resources like fire tasks when necessary.

“We move vehicles, appliances and aircraft around all the time to manage our risks and when incidents escalate,” he said.

Mr Waters said he was confident firefighters could consolidate containment lines at the Bindoon blaze with favourable weather over the next 24 hours.