A bushfire that tore across the outskirts of an Australian city over the weekend has destroyed at least 41 homes and damaged a further 19, authorities said today. One firefighter was injured and several people were treated for smoke inhalation.

Firefighters are close to stopping the spread of the fire and another that broke out over the weekend in the same area of western Australia state. The two blazes have razed 4,000 acres (1,600 hectares) of forested land to the north and south-east of Perth since Saturday, the fire and emergency services authority said.

The fire service said that despite using more than 200 firefighters that further damage is likely, especially in Roleystone and Kelmscott.

A female firefighter who was injured tackling one blaze, which erupted shortly before noon Sunday, was apparently in stable condition at a hospital, the fire service said. The authority has not released details of how she was hurt. Several residents took themselves to hospitals after suffering minor smoke inhalation, the chief operations officer, Craig Hynes, said.

"The pleasing thing is that there's been no serious injuries or fatalities," he added.

Residents who were evacuated from the path of the blaze on Sunday have not yet been allowed to return to their homes due to the continuing fire danger, he said.

Further north, in the Swan Valley district, around 150 firefighters using water-bombing helicopters and trucks had contained another fire by early today. There was no property lost.

"Conditions are still windy, but nowhere near as bad as yesterday," he said.

The Roleystone fire started accidentally when a man using an electric grinder in his backyard ignited dry grass, the fire authority said. The other fire began when a tree branch that was blown down by strong winds hit electrical transmission infrastructure, it said.

The fires in Australia's west come as huge areas of the east coast recover from a major cyclone that struck Queensland last week and from flooding from drenching rains in Queensland and southern Victoria.

February is the last month of summer in Australia and also marks the height of both the monsoon season in the tropical north and the riskiest period for bushfires.

Survivors of bushfires that ripped across Victoria, killing 173 people and razing 2,000 homes, marked the second anniversary of Australia's worst fire disaster today.