Retired farmer Colin Pond says he is "numb" after his farmhouse and other infrastructure were destroyed in a devastating bushfire that ripped through WA's agricultural region on Sunday and Monday.
Corrigin is one of the Wheatbelt communities tallying its losses after strong winds hit the area, whipping the fire into a frenzy that burned through trees and recently cropped farms.
Mr Pond says he and his wife, Brenda, had the house for 20 years and were unable to rebuild as they let the insurance lapse.
"You have no conscious thought of what your feelings are. You just think 'Oh no, this can't be right'," Mr Pond said.
Mr Pond said he went into shock when he arrived at the property on Sunday to see it engulfed in smoke and flames.
The retired couple spend most of their time in Perth and say losing the house was the "end of an era", but the real damage was to the soil.
Last year saw a bumper wheat harvest for the region but the dense stubble meant the fire burned extra hot, damaging valuable topsoil.
"After 20, 30 plus years of building up the soil, keeping your organic matter, doing everything to prevent wind erosion, then in one afternoon it's all gone," Mr Pond said.
Local farmer Terry Davis was playing bowls in nearby Quairading when he heard the news of the fire.
By the time he got home the fire was already through the farm.
Mr Davis has lived in the area for more than four decades and said he had not seen anything on this scale.
"We have had small fires," he said.
"In the past, we had a lot more sheep here so we had a lot more pasture paddocks. The fire's a lot easier to control in the pasture paddocks than stubble.
"Being such a real heavy crop last year, there was just no way of stopping it.
"The fire was just too fierce to actually do much to it."
Mr Davis said farmers would be grappling with a huge loss of topsoil and feed shortages.
Fires continue to burn
The bushfires, which started on Sunday, have been downgraded from emergency level following cooler conditions overnight with 140 firefighters, including local farmers, battling the blaze at its peak.
The bushfires burning near Corrigin, Ardath, Shackleton in the Shires of Quairading, Bruce Rock, Corrigin, Kondinin and Narembeen are at a watch and act, as are the fires in the shires of Narrogin and Wickepin.
A bushfire advice is in place for parts of Muntadgin, Hyden and Kulin in the Shires of Bruce Rock, Kondinin, Dumbleyung and Narembeen, but Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson said there was still a real threat to lives and homes.
Fires are also burning in the state's South West region and Mr Dawson said an estimated 60,000 hectares of land had been impacted across all the firegrounds including 35,000ha in the Shackleton fire in the Wheatbelt.
Communities are still assessing damage
Shire of Corrigin president Des Hickey said there had been extensive damage to farming infrastructure and livestock, and the community was still assessing the destruction as the fire was still burning.
"We have lost a house in the district.
"The full extent of it will pan out over the next few days."
Mr Hickey said the community effort had been "phenomenal" with people travelling in from surrounding areas — some hundreds of kilometres away — to offer support.
"That support is always there in the country," he said.
Bureau of Meteorology manager James Ashley said winds were still around 25 to 30 kilometres an hour on Monday, but temperatures dropped to the mid-20s compared with a maximum of 43 degrees the day before.
Mr Hickey said the conditions on Sunday were "horrific" and the safest thing to do was to stay out of the fire's path.
"It was a fire that you could only do so much with," he said.
'Devastating' livestock losses
Mr Hickey said the next step was to move the surviving livestock into agistment and getting trucks in to do the job was a priority.
"It's very important to be able to do that because some properties here have no feed left; the whole property's been burnt," he said.
"That will be the challenge but I believe that's very well in hand at the moment."
WA Farmers president John Hassell said the number of livestock lost was unknown but it was a "devastating" situation for farmers to face.
"I've been involved in having to put down stock in the past; it's a really unpleasant job," he said.
"It's pretty tough looking at the poor creatures when they've been burnt and they're still alive, it's not nice at all."
Mr Hassle said the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development was sending vets to assist with the situation.
Mr Hickey said there was a big task ahead to rebuild, which he expected would be done mostly by those who volunteered during the fires.
"That proves the resilience of the people involved," he said.
