âImmense tragedyâ: Survivors tell of terror, fleeing as flames jumped âlike a fireballâ Weâre sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later. Dismiss Save Normal text size Advertisement Emma Mirco was home with her elderly dad at their semi-rural property in the Perth Hills on Monday when she opened the blinds to the back door and prepared to step out into her garden. Instead of wandering outside to the shed as she had planned, she looked down into the valley that spreads out below, with views of the suburb of Wooroloo, and saw fire. This was her first view of a fire that by Tuesday afternoon had claimed 56 homes and more than 7300 hectares of land north-east of the city. It forced hundreds of evacuees into evacuation centres and friendsâ homes amid a COVID-19 lockdown, and more than 250 firefighters to a fire measuring 80 kilometres around. Across Perth, ash rained from an orange-tinted sky even in coastal suburbs 50 kilometres away.