The Bureau of Meteorology had been tracking a troubling trend: rainfall in the region had been declining for four decades, and 2015 was 10 percent drier than the already-reduced average. Southwestern Western Australia's Mediterranean climate concentrates nearly all its rain between May and October, leaving the forests bone-dry through the summer months. By January 2016, the jarrah and marri forests of the Darling Scarp were primed to burn. The Lane Poole Reserve, a popular recreational area near Dwellingup, was dense with accumulated fuel loads. When the two fires were detected, crews attacked the second blaze first because it threatened to cut off escape routes from the first. That tactical decision was sound, but the speed at which conditions deteriorated overwhelmed the response. On the first night, eight campers at Lake Navarino found themselves trapped in the forest, and the firefighters sent to rescue them became trapped alongside them for ninety minutes.

Yarloop was a town built on timber. Its famous workshops, once the mechanical heart of the Millars timber empire, contained heritage boilers, engineering machines, and steam and diesel locomotives. The museum curator, Geoff Fortune, later estimated $12 million in damage to the collection alone. When the fire front reached Yarloop, it moved with a ferocity that generated its own weather system, creating wind conditions that made the blaze effectively unstoppable. Of the town's roughly 256 buildings, only 90 survived. The destruction was not random. The fire consumed houses, workshops, the town hall, and commercial buildings with a thoroughness that left streets looking like archaeological sites. Only scattered structures remained, standing among foundations and twisted metal. Criticism of the Department of Fire and Emergency Services erupted almost immediately on social media, and Fire Commissioner Wayne Gregson found himself defending decisions made under conditions that, as the subsequent inquiry would confirm, left few good options.

The days following the fire were marked by frustration as much as grief. Roadblocks prevented evacuated residents from returning to check on properties or feed livestock, and some farmers vowed to bypass the barriers by any means necessary. Livestock owners eventually began breaking through to reach cattle stranded on burnt-out properties, as permits to re-enter were slow in coming. On 11 January, the emergency warning for Waroona was lifted, but two days later the fire jumped containment lines and alerts were reissued for Waroona and Cookernup. Five truckloads of donated hay arrived to feed surviving livestock. Approximately 1,000 power poles had been damaged, with replacement costs estimated between $7 and $10 million. WA Premier Colin Barnett visited Yarloop on 20 January, announcing that former Country Fire Authority chief Euan Ferguson would investigate the disaster while Main Roads Commissioner Ken Michael would oversee recovery. Ferguson's report, released in June 2016, was described as contentious and frank, offering constructive long-term recommendations without assigning individual blame.

By 2018, Yarloop's population had dropped from 395 to 120. The Shire of Harvey issued building permits for 30 new houses and adopted a Town Development Plan that gave remaining residents a voice in how their community would be rebuilt. A new fire brigade station was officially opened in May 2018. Yarloop Primary School, which had survived the fire, reopened in January 2017. Heritage site restoration was included in the rebuilding plan, recognizing that Yarloop's identity was inseparable from the industrial and railway history the workshops represented. The town that is emerging is smaller and quieter than the one that burned, its streets wider and its buildings newer. Whether Yarloop will ever return to its former size is uncertain. What is certain is that the people who chose to stay are rebuilding not just structures but a sense of place, on ground that the fire scorched down to bare earth but could not permanently claim.