Four People Missing After Australian Bushfires

WA police confirmed they have found human remains while searching for two men, aged 73 and 77, missing in the Yarloop, a small town south of Perth which was almost completely destroyed by the fire.

The remains have not yet been formally identified but police said families had been told.

Fire Commissioner Wayne Gregson would not release the names of those missing but one was named by the AAP news agency as 73-year-old Malcolm Taylor.

A family member said Mr Taylor, who wears a hearing aid, has not been heard from since Thursday evening when he had vowed to stay with his house as the fire approached.

She said: "He goes to bed early, around 7.30pm, so we're worried that he turned off his hearing aid and went to sleep and then the houses went up so quickly."

Mr Gregson said that he was hopeful that the missing people "got out early and heeded the warnings".

Around 250 firefighters are battling the fires, which have destroyed at least 131 homes in the state and been declared a natural disaster.

The fires continued to burn on Saturday with authorities issuing an emergency warning for the town of Harvey, south of Perth, saying there was a threat to lives and property.

Mr Gregson said firefighters were getting tired but they would be bolstered by the imminent arrival of dozens more from the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.

He said: "We've got additional resources coming in not because we don't have the capability or the capacity here, it's just around fatigue management.

"There are some very tired firefighters out there in need of some relief."

Yarloop resident Denice Willis told the ABC: "We had black soot just dropping onto the houses and the cars.

"I went out the back and it was all around us.

"We just threw our clothes in the car, our animals, our photos and we just left.

"Everyone is just shocked and heartbroken about what happened.

"I don't know if they will re-build Yarloop because it's only a little town.

"I think we'd still live there anyway, it's just the best place, the loveliest people."

The fire has so far burnt about 70,000 hectares of land with a perimeter of more than 220 kilometres (137 miles).