Farmers in Western Australia’s south-west face costly damage as fire continues to tear through the region.
A bushfire has been burning for four days near Northcliffe, 350 kilometres south of Perth.
At least one unoccupied farm house has been lost in the blaze.
Farm worker Jack Day said fire has destroyed three-quarters of his employers’ farm.
Mr Day works on Wally and Julie Bettink’s dairy farm, about 10 kilometres east of Northcliffe.
He said the wind picked up at about 8pm on February 1, which caused the fire to move quickly.
“So far we’ve lost three-quarters of our dry pastures and fences and about 40 to 50 silage rolls,” he said.
Mr Day said he had concerns for the dry bushland areas not yet affected by fire.
“We’re surrounded by karri forest,” he said.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation …
“Once [the karri trees are] on fire, they’re on fire for days and we’ve got a couple of days coming up where it’s going to be 38 to 39 degrees.”
Mr Day said the fire fighters had been ‘unbelievable’, working alongside property holders until the early hours of the morning.
He said the farm was milking 300 cows at the moment, but there were about 700 to 800 cows on the property.
He said so far he and his employers had managed to protect all their livestock.
“I’m going out now to move cows onto the [green feed] pivot,” he said.
“And we’ll see what happens, we’ll just fight as hard as we can.”
Northcliffe farmer Frances Armstrong told ABC Local Radio the fire ‘looked like an atomic bomb’ over her house.
Ms Armstrong said dry and windy conditions had made the fire more dangerous.
“If you had fire and wind, then suddenly you have this ferociousness,” she said.
The bushfire has reportedly damaged some fencing at the region’s largest dairy, Bannister Downs.
Source: ABC Rural