People have been rescued from a beach by boat, as firefighters continue to battle a fierce bushfire threatening coastal communities north of Perth.

An emergency warning remained active for parts of Wedge Island, Grey, Cervantes, Nambung and Cooljarloo in the Shire of Dandaragan in Western Australia on Friday.

It covers the fishing shack villages of Grey and Wedge, and Cervantes, a town with a population of about 500 some 200 kilometres north of Perth.

Incident controller Damien Pumphrey said the blaze reached the main road into the town overnight but containment lines were holding.

“We’re doing a lot of work in that area … reducing the risk as much as possible,” he told ABC News on Friday.

The fire has burned through more than 70,000 hectares of bushland since it was started by a fatal car crash on Monday.

State Department of Fire and Emergency Services commissioner Darren Klemm said it had been a challenging week, and conditions were still tough.

“We had more than 200 career and volunteer firefighters from all over the state on the ground each day for the last four days fighting the fire and [they] have done an exceptional job protecting these communities in particular difficult conditions,” he said.

On Friday, 38 firefighting aircraft joined the battle against the blaze, along with a large air tanker.

Shire President Tony O’Gorman said the situation had improved since Thursday but the wind was expected to “whip up” during the day.

“We had those large air tankers come in yesterday afternoon and drop some retardant all along the fire front,” he said.

“[We’re] feeling fairly confident this morning.”

O’Gorman said some residents from Grey were rescued by boat from a beach on Thursday.

“Our fisheries vessel [in Jurien Bay to the north] and our marine rescue people went down and took those people off the beach because it was just too risky to leave them there,” he said.

About 37 residents in Wedge and Grey chose to stay in their communities as the blaze burned through the roads in and out of the villages. Klemm said he believed many of them had plans to evacuate by boat if necessary.

The bushfire is moving in a west and is not contained or controlled, according to the state Department of Fire and Emergency Services.

On Thursday night, Pumphrey described the fire as a fierce and challenging blaze with about a 48-kilometre perimeter.

More than 200 firefighters are battling the blaze.

Parts of Indian Ocean Drive and multiple surrounding roads have been closed in the area.

Two volunteer firefighters were burned on Wednesday as the blaze flared. One was flown to Perth for treatment but released from hospital on Thursday.

Klemm said a group of volunteer fire fighters also had a lucky escape on Thursday when a power line came down on top of their appliance. They were temporarily trapped, but eventually freed uninjured.

An evacuation centre at Jurien Bay Sports and Recreation Centre has reopened, while Nambung National Park is still closed.

Temperatures are forecast to reach the high 30s in coming days, with squally winds also predicted.

Residents along the Ashburton Coast have been warned to brace for extreme fire conditions on Sunday.

Klemm said authorities were expecting a challenging summer.

“If we go back to the start of 2024, we had a really extended dry hot period, pretty well from the start of January through to late May into June where we had minimal rainfall,” he said.

“At some point over the course of this fire season that will play out in terms of the impacts of that lack of rainfall on the vegetation being incredibly dry.”

-with AAP