A perfect storm of scorching hot and windy conditions are making it difficult for firefighters to control a massive blaze threatening lives and homes north-east of Perth, as the city enters a third day of an "unprecedented" spring heatwave.
Key points:
- An emergency fire is threatening homes in the cities of Wanneroo and Swan
- It comes after a separate fire caused schools to be evacuated in Perth's south
- The city is in the grip of an unusual November heatwave
An emergency warning is in place for parts of Mariginiup, Jandabup, Melaleuca, Ashby, Sinagra, Tapping, Banksia Grove and Wanneroo as strong winds have the blaze "moving fast in a south westerly direction".
Those east of Pinjar Road have been told it was too late to leave, while those on the west side can leave if the way is clear.
Dramatic footage showed a crew driving through thick smoke while embers rained down on their fire truck as infernos raged around residential homes and parks in Banksia Grove.
An evacuation centre has been set up at the Gumblossom Community Centre in Quinns Rocks after the one at the Wanneroo Recreation Centre was closed.
Hannah Tagore from the Department of Fire and Emergency Services said Wednesday night was going to be challenging.
"Right now the firefighters are facing hot and windy conditions, which are creating really dangerous and unpredictable fire behaviour," Ms Tagore said.
"The fire is burning like a candle with the flame of the candle pointing north-west.
"The fire is spotting really well ahead of itself, so this is creating really dangerous conditions.
"We need people to stay aware of their surroundings, stay up to date using Emergency WA."
Smoke has blanketed the area and embers are burning up to a kilometre ahead of the fire front.
Unconfirmed reports of property damage
Ms Tagore said there had been unconfirmed reports of property damage.
"It's really too early for us to tell so what we're doing is working hard to make that area safe for firefighters to go in and have a look at the extent of what's happened and then we'll continue to update people with more information as soon as we know more."
"Which is obviously going to test our resources out there, we've got a lot of really active volunteers," Ms Tagore said.
"We'll be looking to replenish our crews and to make sure that our crew fatigue us being managed."
Water bombers were used extensively on Wednesday and would be used again from first light.
The flames were bearing down on a caravan storage facility in Jandabup on Wednesday afternoon, before water bombers came to the rescue.
Earlier, DFES Superintendent Andrew Duckworth told ABC's Drive program more than 70 appliances were on site as authorities "were throwing everything" at the blaze.
"[We have] a lot of air support over this fire to try and bring it under control as quickly as we can," he said.
"It's currently not contained or controlled and with an emergency warning over the area we are asking people to leave if safe to do so."
The fire started early on Wednesday afternoon near the intersection of Boundary Road and Bustard Road in Mariginiup and is burning through bush areas and sending plumes of smoke across Perth's north.
The fire closed the busy Kwinana Freeway for two hours and saw children evacuated from schools and daycare centres as residents worked to protect their homes from embers being blown around the neighbourhood.
Traffic was banked up across a large stretch of the freeway in both directions about 26 kilometres south of Perth's CBD.
Aerial vision showed shipping containers on fire in a semi rural block.
Incident controller Damon Childs said the fire had burnt though about 20 hectares.
"At present we haven't had any reports of damage to property but we're still assessing those," he said.
"We'll have patrols working for the evening and our objective is that the whole area will be extinguished, and everything will be back to normal by 8 o'clock tomorrow morning."
"The cause of the fire is still undetermined, we've got fire investigation team coming out — the information we've got so far is it's accidental but we need to confirm that.
Mr Childs said the fire spread was larger than would be expected at this time of year.
'A hot, crackling inferno'
Hammond Park resident Katy said while her home was safe, the fence line of many of her neighbours' homes were ablaze, and she had sore knuckles from banging on all their doors.
"It was like a hot, crackling inferno," she said.
"It was rapid, it just went from licking the fences to all of a sudden blowing all the way down and it was just billowing smoke.
"I kept ringing the fire brigade and saying 'you've got to send every crew you've got in WA' because it was bad. It was really, really bad."
Katy said the wind made the fire worse thought her neighbourhood had been lucky not to have any serious property damage or death.
"Make sure you've got an evacuation plan ready," she said.
"Anything that is dry, keep it cut real, real short. Have sand on the ready, have hoses on the ready.
The temperature in Perth is expected to reach 39 degrees Celsius today as the city heads into an unseasonably sweltering heatwave.
Schools evacuated
Hammond Park Primary School and Secondary School have been evacuated, as well as Aubin Grove Primary School.
Loading...Earlier, staff at a childcare centre near Atkins Parade Park were forced to make a triple-zero call as flames came dangerously close.
That centre was also evacuated.
Aerial support was called in to fight the fire.
Local resident, Aaron Adams-Florenca, who called Triple-0, said he saw smoke coming from a nearby rural block while getting ready to leave for work.
"The embers have pushed spot fires everywhere, it just went crazy," he said.
"I'm walking around with a mop bucket trying to put out little spot fires.
"I realised a mate had a dog in his yard, so me and another guy jumped the fence and got the dog out.
"You can see all the flames near the houses, pretty lucky that none of the houses have lit up.
"The water bombers have been wicked and the firies and emergency services crew have done great job."
Tyson Utting headed home to help out his stepmother after his school was evacuated.
"It burned through our fence a little bit up there," he said pointing to the back half of his home."
He said fire had burnt a caravan in the house behind them, narrowly missing its gasoline can.
Heatwave sets in
The fire comes as Perth and WA's south enters a third day of an "unprecedented" November heatwave.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) took the unusual step of issuing a severe heatwave warning, with weather records in the city and many other towns expected to be broken.
Temperatures are tipped to hit the high 30s for the next four days, including a 40C day on Thursday.
"It's very unusual to see a severe heatwave in November for the west coast, in fact, Perth has never seen a severe heatwave in November," said BOM's Jessica Lingard.
"Perth has actually only ever had four 40-degree days in November, and we could add another one to that tally … there's a chance we could even add a second one as well [this week]."
In the state's north, the town of Roebourne was expecting a maximum of 41C.
Local resident Tootsie Daniel said she was keeping indoors.
"One of my families was saying, 'gee, it's hot outside,' and my daughter said 'yes, it's a heatwave today'," she said.
"If you are on a country … those people will be feeling the heat more but they go somewhere where there's water.
"Something to keep cool and the shade to keep cool."
Perth forecast:
Thursday: Minimum 25C, maximum 40C
Friday: 23C-38C
Saturday: 22C-38C
Sunday: 21C-38C
Monday: 22C-33C
Tuesday: 19C-26C
Wednesday: 16C-29C
Additional reporting by Briana Shepherd, Jesmine Cheong, David Weber and Gian De Poloni.
Visit Emergency WA, call DFES on 133 337, follow DFES on Twitter or listen to ABC Local Radio to stay up to date.