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| Situation Update No. 1 Ref.no.: WF-20091230-24359-AUS
Situation Update No. 1
On 2009-12-31 at 06:53:44 [UTC]
Event: Forest Fire
Location: Australia State of Western Australia WA-wide Situation: Colin Barnett, the WA premier, declared a natural disaster in the rural town of Toodyay, 50 miles north-east of Perth. The fires, which were reported to have been caused by faulty powerlines, blackened an estimated 33,000 acres of land, razing 37 homes and killing livestock. A local woman was hospitalised due to injuries sustained during the fire and two firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation. A third was treated for a heat-related illness but was later released from hospital. The destruction is the worst seen in Australia since the devastating bush fires of Black Saturday on Feb 7, when 173 people were killed in the south-eastern state of Victoria. Experts are predicting an even hotter and drier bush fire season this year, with large swaths of the country on "catastrophic" bush fire alert due to high temperatures and strong winds. Some parts of the country have also been suffering from years of drought, making them more susceptible to fire damage. As well as the Toodyay fire, which was close to being brought under control by hundreds of firefighters in the late afternoon, a major fire was also threatening the town of Badgingarra, several miles further north. Allan Gale, a spokesman for the state's Fire and Emergency Services Authority, said: "The people directly affected by the fire, obviously, want to get back to their properties, but the area is very unsafe." Cooler conditions forecast for the rest of the week could help firefighters bring the remaining blazes under control. In Western Australia, Mr Barnett said emergency funds would be offered to those who had lost homes. "There is no doubt [the emergency services] saved lives," he said. "If you saw the destruction, houses totally destroyed and people were got to safety by the emergency services." Western Australian electricity provider Western Power has conceded its infrastructure may have set off the Toodyay fire. Doug Aberle, the company's managing director, said an independent investigator would visit to the scene on Saturday. "If it's determined that it's caused by our negligence we will be paying compensation as appropriately determined as we always do," he told local media. |  | | | |
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