A Goldfields firefighter has told the extraordinary story of how he saved hundreds of lives by stopping drivers from unwittingly heading into the Esperance firestorm.

Four people died in the blaze, including local farmer Kim Curnow who perished after driving from home to home warning people to evacuate.

The bodies of three overseas backpackers - Julia, a 19-year-old woman from Germany, Norwegian woman Anna and 31-year-old Briton Tom, were found in a burnt-out car.

More than 120,000 hectares have been razed, livestock has perished and many farmers have lost crops.

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.

Mr Tasker did not waste any time and came up with a plan to stop and divert people from driving into the fire front.

"I managed to get the police on the Norseman side of the highway to stop people coming into the fire and I stopped it on 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.

"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.

"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."

Mr Tasker said if he wasn't driving towards Esperance on Tuesday morning many of those people he saved may have lost their lives.

"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."

WAtoday