Australian Wildfires claim more homes
Pastor Dale Morgan
Australian Wildfires claim more homes*
February 05, 2007 08:07am
Article from: AAP
THERE are fears more than 14 properties near Perth have been destroyed
overnight by a bushfire that raged to within three kilometres of the
township of Coolup.
The fire, burning through forest and farmland 70km south-east of Perth,
had yesterday razed 14 houses near Dwellingup.
A school teacher in her mid-20s was also killed on Saturday when her car
rolled as she fled a fire near Toodyay, about 85km north-east of Perth.
Bushfire incident controller Roger Armstrong said the fired burned
through a rural sub-division last night, devastating an additional
12,000ha, as it travelled west from Dwellingup.
"Fortunately we were able to pull it up about three kilometres short of
Coolup," he told Channel 7.
"We've confirmed 14 houses have been burnt, we are not too sure at this
stage about the losses that we may have encountered from last night. It
did burn through a sub-division.
"We've got powerlines down which is isolating the town of Dwellingup
from the power grid. They are currently running on generator power, and
it's affected their water supply as well."
Fires at North Yunderup, Greenfields and Parkland had also affected
three transmission lines and cut power to another 56,000 properties.
The fires were preventing maintenance crews reaching the transmission
lines to assess the damage and begin repairs.
More than 250 firefighters were battling the flames.
It was unclear how the fire that threatened Coolup started, Mr Armstrong
said.