'A recipe for disaster': Why WA could be headed for another bushfire catastrophe

Western Australia has failed to meet its prescribed controlled burn targets every year since 2009 and has had a sharp decline in frontline fire employees since the mid-1980s, the Department of Parks and Wildlife's annual report has revealed.

The report shows the average area subject to annual controlled burns in the South West has decreased more than 70 per cent in the past 50 years.

In the same time, uncontrolled fires have burnt nearly as much land.

The news comes following a dire warning from the captain of the Northcliffe Bushfire Brigade, Rod Parkes, who told the state government in June last year a bushfire catastrophe was imminent unless urgent action was taken to reduce the fuel load in the state.

Mr Parkes told Fairfax Media there was nothing stopping a bushfire tearing through a town in WA's South West unless steps were taken to reduce the amount of flammable scrubland.

"I don't care if you burn it, slash it or mow it – whatever we have to do to get the fuel load down," he said.

"Because, if we don't the results of the next bushfire could be disastrous."

And, chillingly, Mr Parkes prediction came true twice last summer with four people dying in a bushfire in Esperance in December and two more killed in a blaze which destroyed the South West town of Yarloop in January.

Esperance farmer Kym Curnow, who was described as an "icon of the community", was driving was driving door-to-door trying to warn his neighbours to evacuate their homes when he got trapped in the blaze and was killed.

Three backpackers, Briton Thomas Leslie Butcher, German Anna Sashohova Winther and Norwegian Julia Kohrs-Lichte, died at Karranga Station in Scaddan after they attempted to save a horse and the truck they were using to tow a horse float rolled, trapping them inside.

Meanwhile, fire authorities have admitted Yarloop residents were only mentioned in an emergency alert 25 minutes before a firestorm tore through their tiny town, killing 77-year-old Les "Squizzy" Taylor and 73-year-old Malcolm Taylor.

Yarloop resident Dave Phillips, who lost sheds and cars in the fire and whose son's home was destroyed, told of his desperate but failed attempt to save Les Taylor from the deadly blaze.

"He got got hold of me and said his verandah on fire, 'can you came and help me?' I did my best to go and help but couldn't do it...the fire came through that quick," Mr Phillips said as he joined the chorus of people questioning whether the mill town was sufficiently warned.

The DPAW report reveals that the average area subject to annual controlled burns in the South West has decreased more than 70 per cent in the past 50 years, due to weather and population growth near burn areas.

In the same time, uncontrolled fires have burnt nearly as much land.

WA Environment Minister Albert Jacob told ABC Radio on Tuesday the failure to meet prescribed burn targets was due to weather and population growth near burn areas.

"If it is a wet autumn or if it is a wet spring, you're limited in the burning you can do," he said

"That window of opportunity is lessening every year, that's a direct result of the changing climate here, it's a direct result of the declining rainfall within the South West as well.”

The Department of Parks and Wildlife report also highlighted the fact employees in frontline fire management had reduced from 530 in the mid-1980s to 290 in 2015.

Australian Worker's Union secretary Mike Zoetbrood said that the biggest issue for frontline firefighters was the length of their shifts, which can be up to 24-30 hours as there were no staff to take over.

"This is unheard of in other industries and is a recipe for disaster," Mr Zoetbrood said.

"There are not enough people. While volunteers do a great job, we're finding it happens more and more often.”

This became evident during the Yarloop bushfires when a photos emerged of exhausted firefighters sleeping on the ground outside the Harvey fire station. 

"People were falling asleep where they stand ... they started bringing mattresses. Eventually we couldn't get the fire engine in because of all the mattresses," Harvey Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service lieutenant Scott Britza told WAtoday in January.

The Labor opposition's emergency services spokeswoman Margaret Quirk said that with lower staff numbers there must be a succession plan to ensure that knowledge of habitats where fires occur remains with employees.

"As more experienced staff go ... that knowledge and that experience is leaving the department," she said.