Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the afternoon of Wednesday 22 November, heatwave conditions with temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius paired with winds of 65 kilometres per hour combined to spark the Mariginiup bushfire. The fire ravaged Perth's north-eastern suburbs, not far from my electorate office, before finally being brought under control four days later on Sunday 26 November. The fire burned more than 1,800 hectares of land, including farms and residential buildings across the suburbs of Ashby, Banksia Grove, Carramar, Jandabup, Mariginiup, Melaleuca, Sinagra, Wanneroo, Wangara and Tapping. Tragically, 18 properties were destroyed, with dozens more damaged, and more than 130 households were forced to evacuate.

My thoughts and the thoughts of many others are with those who are worst-affected by the fire—those who lost their homes or who have suffered damage and who now face a long journey ahead to rebuild their lives. My message to them is that you are not alone in facing these new challenges.

I must also commend the efforts of the more than 1,000 staff and volunteers from multiple agencies who led the response to this emergency, ensuring damage to property was kept to a minimum and loss of life was avoided. These were the more than 200 career and volunteer firefighters who battled the flames on the front line, and the 50 incident-management team members who manned road closures and delivered meals and relief to fire workers. These were crews from Western Power, Telstra, Water Corporation, the Salvation Army and St John Ambulance, and volunteers who manned evacuation centres in Quinns Rocks and Bullsbrook, as well as the animal evacuation centre in Wanneroo. These were the countless members of the community who donated their time, money and resources to their fellow Western Australians in their time of need. Thank you for all you did to save Perth's north-eastern suburbs from greater damage and possible carnage.