Australian wildfires raze 95 homes in single township

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The number of homes lost in a bushfire in Western Australia rose on Saturday to 121, as officials admitted the emergency was not yet over with three people still unaccounted for.

A brushfire traveled through a town in remote southwestern Australia, destroying most of the buildings with flames up to 160 feet high.

“I believe we’ve had what I would suggest are catastrophic losses within Yarloop”, said Wayne Gregson, Western Australian Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner. Communities are being evacuated by road or air, as the fire has continued to push its way south towards the rural community of Harvey.

“The fire continues to be uncontained and out of control”.

Three people were reported missing from the town earlier on Friday, however at approximately 17:30 local time (AEDT), Australian authorities confirmed they had been accounted for.

As helicopters surveyed the damage on Friday, they found animals stranded in charred fields, while some owners took to writing their phone numbers on their horses in the hope that they would be found safe and returned.

Four people tragically died in a series of wildfires sparked by lightning in Western Australia state in November past year following a spate of earlier blazes in other Australian states from persistent hot and dry conditions.

Australia experienced its fifth hottest year on record in 2015, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, which has been keeping statistics since 1910.

Close to 100 homes have been razed and more are under threat as fires burn in West Australia.