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Father, son turn fire saviours

Greg Jones with scores of used fire extingushers that he used to save homes Ayres Rd. Picture: Michael O'Brien/The West Australian

On Ayres Road, Stoneville, dozens of used fire extinguishers litter the landscape.

For those returning to their Perth Hills homes yesterday, the discarded red bottles were a welcome sight, left by their neighbours who had battled through the night to save their homes.

Volunteer firefighters Greg Jones and his son Daniel stayed to defend the neighbourhood as flames edged closer on Sunday.

Mr Jones, who runs a fire protection business, used more than 100 fire extinguishers stored in his shed as they spent hours trying to defend the street from the blaze. "Straight away, I started to prepare," he said.

"I was working on the wind direction and forecast that I knew and I was pretty sure the fire was going to impact, so I had my fire plan ready, my wife and family evacuated and they took all our important stuff."

Noticing his neighbours were away, Daniel rushed to their house to rescue two dogs that had been left tied up at the property.

Once the fire reached the street, the pair, undeterred by the conditions they had dealt with as volunteers previously, helped fire crews by blasting spot fires with their extinguishers.

Neighbours, including Gary Jeffries, credit the pair and on-duty fire crews for saving their homes they say would have otherwise been destroyed.

"We're grateful to our neighbours and to the firefighters, they've done a marvellous job," Mr Jeffries said.