The 2014 Perth Hills bushfire, sometimes referred to as the Parkerville fire, was a bushfire that burned from 12 January to 1 February and affected the Mundaring municipality of the

Perth Hills Perth Hills is a term used primarily for marketing purposes to identify the part of the Darling Scarp and hinterland east of the scarp that lies within the Shire of Mundaring, City of Swan, and the City of Kalamunda and as part of the constituen ...

in the Australian state of Western Australia. During a major run of the fire on the afternoon and evening of 12 January, fifty-seven houses and numerous non-residential buildings were completely destroyed, and a further six houses were damaged in the suburbs of Mount Helena, Stoneville, and Parkerville. Approximately of uncleared land and

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...

—the majority on private property—were burned during the 21-day duration of the fire. None of the residential subdivisions impacted had been formally declared as being within a bushfire prone area. The cause of the fire was recorded as accidental by the

Department of Fire and Emergency Services The Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) is a government department that is responsible for fire and emergency services in Western Australia. The department came into being in 2012 as a result of the Perth Hills Bush Fire review.DFES ...

(DFES). The source of ignition was determined by both the DFES and Energy Safety to have been a fallen power pole, which ignited extremely dry vegetation at approximately 11:00 AWST (

UTC+8 UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00. With an estimated population of 1.708 billion living within the time zone, roughly 24% of the world population, it is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a ...

) during a period of easterly winds gusting up to moderate gale force and temperatures in excess of . A considerable quantity of property in Stoneville was destroyed following a wind change that brought fresh breezes from the south west to the fire ground, just prior to 15:00 AWST.

Background

In the Mt. Helena, Parkerville, and Stoneville suburbs of Mundaring Shire there are a mixture of large properties with stands of open

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...

and pastures, and standard residential blocks with trees in a close vicinity to houses. The majority of the area eventually burned was within a broad

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ove ...

sloping gently upward, west to east. The fuels were typical of a

Eucalypt Eucalypt is a descriptive name for woody plants with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australasia: ''Eucalyptus'', ''Corymbia'', ''Angophora'', '' Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...

open forest; an over-story composed primarily of jarrah (''

eucalyptus marginata ''Eucalyptus marginata'', commonly known as jarrah, djarraly in Noongar language and historically as Swan River mahogany, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a tree with rough ...

'') and marri (''

corymbia calophylla ''Corymbia calophylla'', commonly known as marri, is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is a tree or mallee with rough bark on part or all of the trunk, lance-shaped ad ...

''), with scrub,

leaf litter Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that have fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituent ...

and patches of grass constituting the fuel load in the under-story. The estimated average fuel load was 15 tonne per hectare (t/ha), with a maximum fuel load of 20 t/ha in some areas of the fire ground.

Fire timeline

Aftermath

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/bushfires/parkerville-pole-owner-never-warned-about-fire-risk-ng-b88914030z

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Australian Bushfire Season

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

Australian bushfire

Bushfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...

Bushfires in Western Australia 2010s in Perth, Western Australia Perth Hills 2010s fires in Oceania 2014 fires

Background

Fire timeline

Aftermath

See also

References