HAYDEN COOPER, PRESENTER: West Australian fire authorities are facing serious questions after a bushfire killed two elderly men and destroyed more than 120 homes in one small town.

The blaze has finally been contained and the threat to homes and lives is fading.

But as the mop-up begins, grief is giving way to anger. Locals in the town of Yarloop are furious about the lack of warning and lack of water for those who stayed behind and they say authorities have blood on their hands.

Lauren Day reports.

ADELMA ARCHER, YARLOOP RESIDENT: It was so terrifying. I wouldn't like no-one to go through what we did on the oval - sparks flying over us, the wind was blowing and explosions of the buildings and everything. And to hear that the steam train, the steam shop, workshop was screaming its last scream, burning and exploding, it was traumatic.

LAUREN DAY, REPORTER: Fast and furious and out of control. The bushfire terrorised the people of Yarloop as it cut a path through their beloved town.

ADELMA ARCHER: We were just covered in all this ashes falling and everything and I thought we were going to burn up, that the cars would explode or catch fire or something. And it was - I thought, "We're never gonna get out of it."

HELICOPTER RADIO VOICE: Looks pretty awful, doesn't it?

HELICOPTER RADIO VOICE II: Oh, it's really sad, actually.

HELICOPTER RADIO VOICE III: Mate, that's - that's just gone.

LAUREN DAY: Adelma Archer did survive, but she lost everything.

ADELMA ARCHER: We thought we was just going down to the oval and then go back. So, ya thought we was going back to our homes and be OK. Nup.

LAUREN DAY: What do you think you'll do now?

ADELMA ARCHER: Don't know. It's just void at the moment. We've got nothing.

LAUREN DAY: She never returned to her home. Two men in their 70s never made it out of theirs.

TONY ELSON, YARLOOP RESIDENT: Houses on fire! You don't need to go look at it! You need to go put it out! It was gross incompetence! That's what happened in Yarloop!

LAUREN DAY: For the survivors, terror turned to grief, then grief to anger.

TONY ELSON: I lost a really good mate. Malcolm Taylor, or 'Squizzy', he was a really good bloke, ya know? Really top bloke. You know, you could never, ever go and see Mal for 10 minutes. Just wasn't possible. You had to stay for an hour and a half. You had to go out to the shed. He had to show you the pictures of his bikes, pictures of his family, you know. Completely harmless sorta guy. And he's gone because - because of a garden house, lack of a garden hose.

LAUREN DAY: Tony Elson stayed to flight the names, but says he was forced to abandon his home when the town's water supply was cut. The Water Corporation says due to the catastrophic nature of the fire and the loss of power, water was unable to be transferred from the water treatment plant to the town's tank. That's an explanation residents don't accept.

TONY ELSON: I'm gonna keep going till I get the truth, I get some answers and I get some satisfaction for the people of Yarloop. I will be taking this - you and I - you will have nightmares of my face, mate.

LAUREN DAY: The fire has burnt through more than 72,000 hectares - an area bigger than the city of Perth itself stretching from the coast to towns more than an hour inland. Overnight, it came within one kilometre of the dairy and farming town of Harvey. Yarloop locals want to know why that town to its south and Waroona to its north were warned and they weren't.

ALAN COLEMAN, YARLOOP RESIDENT: Everybody said go to where the station is, but it wasn't there no more. So we all head to the oval out the back, and next thing, the fire just came - just the fire was all around us. We couldn't get out.

LAUREN DAY: Do you feel like Yarloop was just forgotten?

ALAN COLEMAN: Yes, I do. Yeah, yeah. Completely forgot about.

LAUREN DAY: On the very day the blaze swept through the town, a scathing report was released into last summer's fires in WA, which found poor collaboration between agencies jeopardised the fire-fighting response. A previous review into the 2011 blaze which burnt through dozens of homes in Margaret River found there was a lack of coordination between government departments. But the commissioner and Government have defended the response.

WAYNE GREGSON, DFES COMMISSIONER: There's no secrets here. As I say, we've had our best people work on this matter with their best endeavours. I'm sure there'll be no shortage of critics. There's lots of people, probably they were asleep in bed at the time, but there'll be no shortage of critics who will now look back on every action of my best people and the best people of the other agencies and find fault.

LAUREN DAY: The Insurance Council estimates the damage bill is around $60 million and still rising.

BERNIE WORTHINGTON, WAROONA FARMER: This is our - what's left of our shiraz. This we would've picked it about three weeks' time, I guess. Would've taken probably 15 tonne of shiraz off here. Obviously we're not gonna get anything this year.

LAUREN DAY: Waroona farmer Bernie Worthington lost his vineyard in the blaze.

BERNIE WORTHINGTON: Basically all of the vineyard infrastructure has gone. Our main water supply lines from our dam and pump system are gone. We've got no power yet, so we can't test a lot of stuff, but the whole crop, which we would've harvested in about two weeks, has been totally destroyed.

LAUREN DAY: I'm about 16 kilometres from where the blaze started and it tore through this caravan park on Thursday night. There's still a few flames behind me and a lot of smoke around, but we have been able to return, and soon, many of the families who've lost their homes will be returning to scenes like this. And they'll be forced with the task of whether to rebuild or abandon their homes.

With downed powerlines and asbestos fears, it could be days before residents are allowed to return to what's left of Yarloop, the town they believe authorities either ignored or forgot.

ADELMA ARCHER: Oh, it was beautiful. You couldn't wish for a better place. You know, it was really nice. We had such lovely neighbours and, you know, got on really good and hopefully we'll keep in touch. But everyone said from in our street that's lost their homes and that they don't think they'll go and live - rebuild back there again because too many memories.

LAUREN DAY: What do you think the future of Yarloop is?

ALAN COLEMAN: Nothing. I don't know. How can you build something with nothing there? There's nothing there. It's all gone. So I don't know what I'm gonna do. Buy a caravan, I don't know. Work it out when it happens, I s'pose, yeah.

LAUREN DAY: : How are you feeling at the moment?

ALAN COLEMAN: Sad, miserable. (Clears throat) Yeah, lost everything. I don't know. I don't know what to do. My head's - I just feel sick.

HAYDEN COOPER: Lauren Day reporting.