‘Every leaf catching fire’: Fire front stretches 50 kilometres across WA

A bushfire continues to rage out of control in Western Australia’s south with renowned botanist Professor Kingsley Dixon describing how he had just three minutes to flee his property with embers ‘sparking all around him’.

At least two properties have burnt an hour south-east of Perth with more property loss expected to be confirmed later on Monday.

The fire, believed to have been accidentally sparked by campers in bone-dry forest, has razed more than 3000 hectares, with a front stretching 50 kilometres.

Parts of Dixon’s Cypress Farm and Gardens, spanning 12 acres, were burnt, with him seeing his barn and a pavilion on fire as he evacuated.

“There’s a whole lot of other houses we think have gone, [firefighters] trying to get to them now, all for somebody probably cooking bacon and eggs,” the professor, whose garden included Australia’s largest maple tree collection, told Radio 6PR.

“[At around midday] we were cleaning up the tennis court for a tennis weekend – and I just looked at my hand, and it was orange; I looked up and there was the first smoke.”

Dixon said a few hours after he first noticed the smoke and activated his perimeter sprinklers to try to protect the grounds as per his fire plan, the fire was at his doorstep.

Their house was spared from the blaze.

“The spotting was just dropping everywhere – every fragment and leaf that we hadn’t picked up was catching fire,” he said.