00:00It's been an awful start to the fire season in WA, Jemma.
00:05This is the 18th emergency level bushfire that we've seen in the state since November
00:111st.
00:12That's an emergency level bushfire every two and a half days.
00:16And this fire in particular was across Ongarup and Minderabin.
00:21And basically, authorities have confirmed that a 34-year-old local farmer has lost his
00:28life.
00:29He was leaving the fire scene on Tuesday evening when a fire-damaged tree fell onto
00:35his car and he sadly sustained critical injuries and he died at the scene.
00:39Anna, tell us about the impact in the area.
00:43Yep.
00:45This fire has burnt through around 5,500 hectares of land and Jemma, we are in the middle of
00:52prime cropping country and it's also harvest time so you can imagine what kind of impact
00:58that that has had on local growers here.
01:01And aside from the physical impact, there's just a really strong sense of sadness in the
01:07community at the moment.
01:09You know, these are really small, tight-knit communities and everyone knows everyone.
01:15Shire President Kate O'Keefe says an event like this has been a really devastating blow to the
01:19community.
01:20Concern levels would have been really high knowing that there would have been a lot of community
01:24members out on the roads and, you know, grave concern and, of course, everyone would have
01:31been hoping that the outcome wasn't as terrible as it was and just real sadness to hear that
01:38someone had passed away in the shire of Ongarup on the roads.
01:41Yeah, so this is the second fire-related death that WA has seen in the last fortnight, both
01:48in the same region, the great southern of Western Australia, the first being in West River around
01:54five hours southeast of Perth.
01:57Another local farmer fighting a fire, he was putting a firebreak onto his property using
02:02a piece of machinery and, sadly, that came into contact with the fire.
02:06And, Anna, what about the rest of the state? How is WA looking?
02:10Not good, Gemma. This was one of ten fires burning at the exact same time. Three hours
02:18north of Perth, we've seen Ineaba and Waradagy just raised by a fire. 13,000 hectares burnt
02:25through and, again, cropping country during harvest time. Two vacant homes were lost, 300 sheep as
02:33well, hundreds of kilometres of fencing and all the infrastructure to go alongside it and,
02:39you know, conditions are expected to be hot and windy, so, you know, things are not looking good.
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