"All my bits and pieces that make me are gone." That's the painful reality dawning on Margaret River residents left homeless today after a "controlled" burn by WA authorities spiralled into a raging bushfire that sent locals fleeing for their lives.

Marjorie Stewart and husband Garreth are among dozens of people struggling to come to terms with their losses in the fire that started yesterday and continues to burn out of control in some parts of the region today.

Seen from outside the Margaret River fire station, smoke billows from the Ellensbrook fire burning towards Prevelly.

They are angry at WA's Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) for allowing a prescribed burn to get out of control in the nearby Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park.

Hundreds of people from Prevelly, Gnarabup and other communities in the popular tourist region yesterday spent the night at evacuation centres as more than 100 firefighters, assisted by two aerial water bombers, fought the blaze.