More than 120,000 hectares have been razed, an estimated 150 livestock have perished and many farmers have lost crops. Trevor Tasker (inset) saw the firestorm approaching from Esperance. Credit:Trevor Tasker Department of Fire and Emergency Services Goldfields-Esperance superintendent Trevor Tasker told Radio 6PR on Thursday morning he was driving on the highway to Esperance from Kalgoorlie when he spotted some smoke. "I stopped on the side of the road and a couple of bee keepers had a yak to me because they were a bit worried about their bees and hives getting burnt," he said. "By the time we had spoken for five minutes, it was impacting the road.

"I stood on my car to see if I could see the fire but I was always blown off by the wind. Department of Fire and Emergency Services Goldfields-Esperance superintendent Trevor Tasker. "I think drove about five kilometres down the road and I could hear the fire which sounded like a rocket going off." Mr Tasker said he did not waste any time to come up with a plan to stop and divert people from driving into the fire front. He rang the Norseman police to get them to stop people heading towards the fire from Norseman and he stopped cars coming in on from the Esperance side.

He said that in just half and hour, the 10-kilometre fire front had advanced roughly 14 kilometres. Mr Tasker described the scene as complete mayhem. "There were people running everywhere... we weighed up a few things, but the problem out there was there was no communication because all the phone towers were down," he said. Mr Tasker said he stayed with about 100 cars which consisted of grey nomads, tourists and locals until the fire had passed. But he decided to take the convoy to Norseman when he noticed a few of the elderly drivers struggling to breathe because of the smoke.

"We did a risk assessment of the fire outside of Norseman and decided to do a run for it and get these people to safety in Norseman," he said. "I told them to turn off their air cons and windows and I put at manager at the front of the group so they didn't go the wrong way. "So we lined up about 100 cars and grey nomad people in their campervans and we marched them up the highway. "Your whole life is flashing before your eyes because you have about 200 people you are trying to take care of."

Loading "It was a little bit of fate... how does that happen?," he said. "I've never seen a fire as devastating or fast-moving as that. It came from nowhere." Follow WAtoday on Twitter