Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now as we know, tomorrow is of course Territory Day.
(00:03):
It's a fantastic day to celebrate all that makes the
Northern Territory great and also an opportunity well to let
off fireworks. But we do need to make sure that
we stay safe and we also obviously we know that
our fires and Bushfires NTA do an incredible job at
making sure that everybody is really prepared and that they
(00:25):
are prepared should things get out of hand. Now joining
us in the studio this morning, we have got Bushfires
NTS Incident Controller Mark Williams. Good morning to you, Mark,
good morning, good to have you in the studio. And
we've also got the Chief Fire Officer for the Northern Territory,
Steven Saul, Good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Good a, Katie, good day listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Lovely to have you both in the studio and well
giving us really a comprehensive sort of pre plan and
rap I suppose before Territory Day. Now, first off, how
are the conditions looking for Territory days, Stephen, We might
go to you first.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Very similar today, so we're going to have gusting winds
and the like, so but hopefully come that period between
six and eleven o'clock at night that the conditions will
calm down a bit.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
So, yeah, we're hoping that Mark, you and I were
talking about this offair. We've seen it's been quite windy
the last couple.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Of days it has. Yeah, we've been very busy over
the last few days. A number of fires in the
landscape area already and that's going to be added to
obviously with the work for our crews tomorrow night. But yeah,
certainly hoping that those weather conditions do obeate a little
bit tomorrow evening.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Now, in terms of the preparatory work that happens in
the city and our urban urban areas, I should say, Stephen,
what you know, what kind of work do you guys
do from the fiery's perspective to make sure that if
things do go wrong, that you know that we're as
organized as possible to respond to it.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
So we've been working for quite some time now with
stakeholders and stuff like that to make sure that mitigation
work has been done, like on land and you can
see what is green is green and what is brown
is like at risk. So yeah, so crews know like
where their problem areas are within We've like asked crews
(02:15):
to be available if needed, and we'll have all our
resources in the way vehicles will be staffed for the night.
So we're going to set up an EOC as well,
so we'll have that running out at PMC for the event,
so they'll be staffing there and not to manage like
and make sure that we're well resourced.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And obviously we're treating our priorities right.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
So is there additional cruise on.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
There will be, so everything will be enhanced for the evening.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Like how many are we talking how many fire is
going to be on duty tomorrow night?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Well, pretty much as many as we can get, so
that's it. So there will obviously be something out there
partaking as well, Like it's a beautiful time and it's
a great event and it's the only place in Australia
where you can actually do it. The planes will be full,
there'll be people flying in for the event as well,
and they'll be leaving you know shortly after.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
This is the thing, right, it's a juggle because we
all want to be able to continue to let those
fireworks off, like we enjoy doing it, but we want
to do it safely. I mean mark for bushfires into
in terms of the crews that are on I know
that you guys are quite heavily reliant on volunteer volunteers
as well. How are things looking from that perspective.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Yeah, certainly. The volunteers are the backbone of our organization.
We've got twenty brigades throughout the territory and all of
them will be on a height and awareness status tomorrow.
Some of them will actually actually be on duty. We're
working with our colleagues into your FRS as well in
numerous locations such as down as Allison up here as well.
We've got an incident management team set up at Acacia
(03:54):
Hills as well. So the volunteers, a lot of them,
as I said, will be in and around their hot
spot known in their local areas. A lot of them
will be out there patrolling those and interacting with the
community as well because they want to enjoy the evening.
They might not be actually partaking in the fireworks itself,
but they're hoping to actually enjoy that night as well
and not having to respond to fire activity doing for
(04:15):
that as a result of careless letting off a fireworks.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah. Well, and this is the thing you guys are
doing so much to make sure the Northern Territory is
prepared and make sure that we're prepared up here in
the top end. But what do we as territorians need
to do as well to make sure that we do
things safely? I mean, do we need a bucket of
water there where we're letting off fireworks? Do we need
to make sure that we're in a space where we're
not going to light up a bush?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
You know, just ahead of celebrations, Katie. What listeners can
do is they can make sure that they're gutters. You know,
not all houses have gutters up here, but some of
them definitely do so, like I've got them on half
of my house. But make sure they're clear from leaves debris.
Make sure you wet down your lawns and your gun
beds prior to the event. Make sure you clear any
(05:01):
flammable materials from around your home or your shed. So
it's important that on the night that people actually set
off firefly fireworks in a clear area away from flammable
materials and structures, and sure use fireworks are completely cool
before you throw them away, and safely dispose of any
unused fireworks by returning them to anti work safe or
(05:25):
otherwise in remote areas and that they can hand them
into police stations.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
And we will take our listeners through those different areas
as well where they can drop them off if they've
got unused ones, I mean out in the rural area
then as well. Mark, I would imagine that, you know,
the areas like people have got a bit more space
to let off those fireworks. But are there some further
concerns in terms of maybe some of those areas not
being green.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Yes, most certainly we are in the you know, I
guess the bush fire season coming into the dry now,
so you know, those areas. We ask people to prepare
those areas, make sure they've got the area slashed, as
Steven said, make sure the areas went down, make sure
they've got a water source of some sort, you know,
if an accident does happen, you know, buckets of water
that they can call off the fireworks or extinguisher a
(06:09):
small fire while they can capture it while it's safe
to do so. But also be prepared that if something
does happen to call Triple O immediately and we can
provide as much advice as we possibly can. We are
a finite resource throughout the territory. We can't get to
every single location, so people, we do rely on the
members of the public to be self sufficient and be
aware that you know, we're obviously letting off fireworks. They
(06:31):
do and can cause not only injury but damaged by fire,
and we really ask people to enjoy the night and
just act a little bit more responsibly and make sure
that they take that bit of time to yeah, serve
the fireworks off safely.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Yeah, if fire fighters are out there actually doing a
very hard job like on the night. So last year
there was just in that period alone, there was two
hundred and forty one fire calls and one hundred and
fifty one of them were actually wildfires, so they tie
up resources for a long time. So yeah, so if
you do see the firefighters out there working, make sure
you treat them with a bit of respect and that
(07:06):
as well. And a lot of these firefighters are volunteers,
you know, even from within our organization, and that we
have nearly three hundred volunteers that will be working the night.
They've all had busy days and stuff like that, and
they'll be rotating through the vehicles and.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Doing it so that we can all enjoy ourselves. I
think that's a really big thing to remember, is that
everybody's working really hard from both of your organizations tomorrow
night so that the rest of us can really celebrate
territory Days. So please try your best to do the
right thing. Don't put your half bloody, unused firecracker in
(07:41):
the wheelly bin and then wonder why it lights up
or wonder why it melts. Please, you know, make sure
that if something has not gone off, that you don't
go over the top of it and put your face
in front of that firework. You know, the last thing
we want is to see people injured. So just like
you know, we're talking about this with Andy Thomas just
a couple moments ago from Saint John, use your common sense.
(08:03):
I know sometimes it can be hard to remember, but
you've got to use that common sense, right.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Absolutely, it's not as common as we might.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
And there's a lot of kids and I mean they
love it. They having a crazy time. Yeah, you know,
so that's it. It's a fun family thing to do
and we just got to look after each other.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah, spot on, Hey, before I let you go, now, Mark,
I know out in the rural area over the last
couple of days, we've had a few people message through
sort of saying there's one here, Hi, Katie. There were
heaps of fires around Catherine. I'm not sure who that
falls under on the weekend. Were they planned burns or deliberately.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
List There's a bit of a mix out there. We're
certainly entering our busy period and the weather conditions over
the last weekend didn't help with the windy nature that
we had. Certainly we are getting some suspicious activity out there,
and where we do have that, will report them directly
with police and we're working with them to investigate any
those But a lot of them we're actually seeing are
actually permit burns, not necessarily requiring us to respond. We're
(09:08):
certainly sucking up some resources when we do have those
escape burns, So people not being prepared to undertake their burns,
not having their slash brakes in place, and the likes
of that. So we do ask again in relation to that,
we are in the bushfire season, so please make sure
you've got the appropriate breaks in place, make sure that
they've got the notifications through to their neighbors and that
they are prepared to undertake any of the burning that
they're doing, but certainly over the weekend it has been
(09:31):
very busy right throughout from Catherine right through the top end,
and we've still got a lot of fire out in
the landscape, so people would have been seeing a fair
bit of smoke around the place at the moment. It
is part of this time of year in the territory, unfortunately,
and we've got to take the opportunities where we can
to burn out some of those high risk areas as
well to better protect the public as we continue in
(09:52):
through the season.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Another listener question, just a quick one, just bush fires.
Nt have any plans for burning the road verge along
door at Row between Adelaide River and Robin Falls before
crack and ie. That person's asking.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Certainly won't be undertaken before crack and eight because that
is only tomorrow. But we do have a fair amount
of fire that has been in and around that landscape
area door At Road and we're continuing to patrol that
area as well, so we'll have cruise in and around
that area, and the local brigade is also on height
and awareness in that area, so certainly keeping an eye
(10:25):
on that area. It's one of our hotspots. And yeah,
we're certainly aware of that.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Well, all the very best for Territory Day tomorrow. Let's
hope that everybody uses that common sense and does the
right thing and you're not you know, you're not having
to deal with, you know, with too many serious incidents
or any serious incidents. Let's hope that things are pretty calm.
Chief Fire Officers Stephen Sewell with the Northern Territory Fire
(10:49):
and Rescue Service and Bushfires Into Incident Controller Mark Williams.
Thank you both very much for your time this morning.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
No worries. Thanks
Now as we know, tomorrow is of course Territory Day.
(00:03):
It's a fantastic day to celebrate all that makes the
Northern Territory great and also an opportunity well to let
off fireworks. But we do need to make sure that
we stay safe and we also obviously we know that
our fires and Bushfires NTA do an incredible job at
making sure that everybody is really prepared and that they
(00:25):
are prepared should things get out of hand. Now joining
us in the studio this morning, we have got Bushfires
NTS Incident Controller Mark Williams. Good morning to you, Mark,
good morning, good to have you in the studio. And
we've also got the Chief Fire Officer for the Northern Territory,
Steven Saul, Good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Good a, Katie, good day listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Lovely to have you both in the studio and well
giving us really a comprehensive sort of pre plan and
rap I suppose before Territory Day. Now, first off, how
are the conditions looking for Territory days, Stephen, We might
go to you first.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Very similar today, so we're going to have gusting winds
and the like, so but hopefully come that period between
six and eleven o'clock at night that the conditions will
calm down a bit.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
So, yeah, we're hoping that Mark, you and I were
talking about this offair. We've seen it's been quite windy
the last couple.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Of days it has. Yeah, we've been very busy over
the last few days. A number of fires in the
landscape area already and that's going to be added to
obviously with the work for our crews tomorrow night. But yeah,
certainly hoping that those weather conditions do obeate a little
bit tomorrow evening.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Now, in terms of the preparatory work that happens in
the city and our urban urban areas, I should say, Stephen,
what you know, what kind of work do you guys
do from the fiery's perspective to make sure that if
things do go wrong, that you know that we're as
organized as possible to respond to it.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
So we've been working for quite some time now with
stakeholders and stuff like that to make sure that mitigation
work has been done, like on land and you can
see what is green is green and what is brown
is like at risk. So yeah, so crews know like
where their problem areas are within We've like asked crews
(02:15):
to be available if needed, and we'll have all our
resources in the way vehicles will be staffed for the night.
So we're going to set up an EOC as well,
so we'll have that running out at PMC for the event,
so they'll be staffing there and not to manage like
and make sure that we're well resourced.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And obviously we're treating our priorities right.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
So is there additional cruise on.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
There will be, so everything will be enhanced for the evening.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Like how many are we talking how many fire is
going to be on duty tomorrow night?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Well, pretty much as many as we can get, so
that's it. So there will obviously be something out there
partaking as well, Like it's a beautiful time and it's
a great event and it's the only place in Australia
where you can actually do it. The planes will be full,
there'll be people flying in for the event as well,
and they'll be leaving you know shortly after.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
This is the thing, right, it's a juggle because we
all want to be able to continue to let those
fireworks off, like we enjoy doing it, but we want
to do it safely. I mean mark for bushfires into
in terms of the crews that are on I know
that you guys are quite heavily reliant on volunteer volunteers
as well. How are things looking from that perspective.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Yeah, certainly. The volunteers are the backbone of our organization.
We've got twenty brigades throughout the territory and all of
them will be on a height and awareness status tomorrow.
Some of them will actually actually be on duty. We're
working with our colleagues into your FRS as well in
numerous locations such as down as Allison up here as well.
We've got an incident management team set up at Acacia
(03:54):
Hills as well. So the volunteers, a lot of them,
as I said, will be in and around their hot
spot known in their local areas. A lot of them
will be out there patrolling those and interacting with the
community as well because they want to enjoy the evening.
They might not be actually partaking in the fireworks itself,
but they're hoping to actually enjoy that night as well
and not having to respond to fire activity doing for
(04:15):
that as a result of careless letting off a fireworks.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah. Well, and this is the thing you guys are
doing so much to make sure the Northern Territory is
prepared and make sure that we're prepared up here in
the top end. But what do we as territorians need
to do as well to make sure that we do
things safely? I mean, do we need a bucket of
water there where we're letting off fireworks? Do we need
to make sure that we're in a space where we're
not going to light up a bush?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
You know, just ahead of celebrations, Katie. What listeners can
do is they can make sure that they're gutters. You know,
not all houses have gutters up here, but some of
them definitely do so, like I've got them on half
of my house. But make sure they're clear from leaves debris.
Make sure you wet down your lawns and your gun
beds prior to the event. Make sure you clear any
(05:01):
flammable materials from around your home or your shed. So
it's important that on the night that people actually set
off firefly fireworks in a clear area away from flammable
materials and structures, and sure use fireworks are completely cool
before you throw them away, and safely dispose of any
unused fireworks by returning them to anti work safe or
(05:25):
otherwise in remote areas and that they can hand them
into police stations.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
And we will take our listeners through those different areas
as well where they can drop them off if they've
got unused ones, I mean out in the rural area
then as well. Mark, I would imagine that, you know,
the areas like people have got a bit more space
to let off those fireworks. But are there some further
concerns in terms of maybe some of those areas not
being green.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Yes, most certainly we are in the you know, I
guess the bush fire season coming into the dry now,
so you know, those areas. We ask people to prepare
those areas, make sure they've got the area slashed, as
Steven said, make sure the areas went down, make sure
they've got a water source of some sort, you know,
if an accident does happen, you know, buckets of water
that they can call off the fireworks or extinguisher a
(06:09):
small fire while they can capture it while it's safe
to do so. But also be prepared that if something
does happen to call Triple O immediately and we can
provide as much advice as we possibly can. We are
a finite resource throughout the territory. We can't get to
every single location, so people, we do rely on the
members of the public to be self sufficient and be
aware that you know, we're obviously letting off fireworks. They
(06:31):
do and can cause not only injury but damaged by fire,
and we really ask people to enjoy the night and
just act a little bit more responsibly and make sure
that they take that bit of time to yeah, serve
the fireworks off safely.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Yeah, if fire fighters are out there actually doing a
very hard job like on the night. So last year
there was just in that period alone, there was two
hundred and forty one fire calls and one hundred and
fifty one of them were actually wildfires, so they tie
up resources for a long time. So yeah, so if
you do see the firefighters out there working, make sure
you treat them with a bit of respect and that
(07:06):
as well. And a lot of these firefighters are volunteers,
you know, even from within our organization, and that we
have nearly three hundred volunteers that will be working the night.
They've all had busy days and stuff like that, and
they'll be rotating through the vehicles and.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Doing it so that we can all enjoy ourselves. I
think that's a really big thing to remember, is that
everybody's working really hard from both of your organizations tomorrow
night so that the rest of us can really celebrate
territory Days. So please try your best to do the
right thing. Don't put your half bloody, unused firecracker in
(07:41):
the wheelly bin and then wonder why it lights up
or wonder why it melts. Please, you know, make sure
that if something has not gone off, that you don't
go over the top of it and put your face
in front of that firework. You know, the last thing
we want is to see people injured. So just like
you know, we're talking about this with Andy Thomas just
a couple moments ago from Saint John, use your common sense.
(08:03):
I know sometimes it can be hard to remember, but
you've got to use that common sense, right.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Absolutely, it's not as common as we might.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
And there's a lot of kids and I mean they
love it. They having a crazy time. Yeah, you know,
so that's it. It's a fun family thing to do
and we just got to look after each other.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah, spot on, Hey, before I let you go, now, Mark,
I know out in the rural area over the last
couple of days, we've had a few people message through
sort of saying there's one here, Hi, Katie. There were
heaps of fires around Catherine. I'm not sure who that
falls under on the weekend. Were they planned burns or deliberately.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
List There's a bit of a mix out there. We're
certainly entering our busy period and the weather conditions over
the last weekend didn't help with the windy nature that
we had. Certainly we are getting some suspicious activity out there,
and where we do have that, will report them directly
with police and we're working with them to investigate any
those But a lot of them we're actually seeing are
actually permit burns, not necessarily requiring us to respond. We're
(09:08):
certainly sucking up some resources when we do have those
escape burns, So people not being prepared to undertake their burns,
not having their slash brakes in place, and the likes
of that. So we do ask again in relation to that,
we are in the bushfire season, so please make sure
you've got the appropriate breaks in place, make sure that
they've got the notifications through to their neighbors and that
they are prepared to undertake any of the burning that
they're doing, but certainly over the weekend it has been
(09:31):
very busy right throughout from Catherine right through the top end,
and we've still got a lot of fire out in
the landscape, so people would have been seeing a fair
bit of smoke around the place at the moment. It
is part of this time of year in the territory, unfortunately,
and we've got to take the opportunities where we can
to burn out some of those high risk areas as
well to better protect the public as we continue in
(09:52):
through the season.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Another listener question, just a quick one, just bush fires.
Nt have any plans for burning the road verge along
door at Row between Adelaide River and Robin Falls before
crack and ie. That person's asking.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Certainly won't be undertaken before crack and eight because that
is only tomorrow. But we do have a fair amount
of fire that has been in and around that landscape
area door At Road and we're continuing to patrol that
area as well, so we'll have cruise in and around
that area, and the local brigade is also on height
and awareness in that area, so certainly keeping an eye
(10:25):
on that area. It's one of our hotspots. And yeah,
we're certainly aware of that.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Well, all the very best for Territory Day tomorrow. Let's
hope that everybody uses that common sense and does the
right thing and you're not you know, you're not having
to deal with, you know, with too many serious incidents
or any serious incidents. Let's hope that things are pretty calm.
Chief Fire Officers Stephen Sewell with the Northern Territory Fire
(10:49):
and Rescue Service and Bushfires Into Incident Controller Mark Williams.
Thank you both very much for your time this morning.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
No worries. Thanks
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