Authorities have not ruled out arson as the cause of a blaze in a West Australian nature reserve that seriously injured two firefighters.
Two female firefighters are in intensive care after they were trapped in a fire truck while battling the blaze in the Two Peoples Bay nature reserve, near Albany in the state's Great Southern, on Friday afternoon.
A 45-year-old woman is in a critical condition with burns to 60 per cent of her body and her 24-year-old colleague is listed as critical but stable with burns to 40 per cent of her body.
Three other firefighters sustained less severe injuries.
Fire incident controller Russel Gould says it's always upsetting when firefighters are injured while on the job.
"Obviously people are a bit distressed about that, or a lot distressed I should say. But like everything else we needed to help our comrades, look after them and then ostensibly move on and try to suppress this fire," he said.
"So the ambulance service was brilliant they were there very, very quickly."
The Department of Environment and Conservation's Jim Sharp says the women got caught out when the wind changed.
"Fire changed directions, came at them in another direction and there was entrapment in a vehicle," he said.
Mr Sharp says an investigation is underway into the cause of the blaze.
"The fire did start on private property outside the nature reserve and escalated into the nature reserve and I think it's being investigated as being a suspicious fire," he said.
Prominent burns surgeon Fiona Woods is consulting on the women's cases.
Authorities continued to fight the blaze on Saturday. It has burnt through 1,000 hectares of bushland.
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