NT Fire and Rescue Service Watch Commander Luigi Cucchiaro says crews battled a large fire in Humpty Doo for a large part of yesterday, with a fire ban extended in the Darwin and Adelaide River forecast areas for a third day in a row due to dry and windy conditions and large fuel loads

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We know that a fireban for the Greater Darwin and
Adelaide River areas has been extended for a third day
in a row amid challenging fire conditions. Extreme fire danger
conditions are forecast, meaning that any fire can be unpredictable
and difficult to control. Now, joining us on the line
is NTY Fire and Rescue Service Watch Commander Luigi Cookie

(00:23):
r Ro. Good morning to you. How are you, Luigi?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning, Katie, how are you really good?

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Thank you so much for your time this morning. Now,
first off, can I find out a little bit more
about this fire in Howard Springs yesterday that.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Kicked off probably after ten o'clock yesterday. It probably I
think it might have been a reignition from the day before.
We've had a few fires in that area for the
past week or so, but the sort of a difficult
area to contain and obviously kicked off again yesterday and
we spent most of the day there. And yeah, we
had heaps of people on the ground with volunteers and

(00:58):
permanent fire fires and bush fires and with aerial support.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
So the busy day, you say, yeah, right, And so
is it under control now or what's the situation at present.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
That's all under control now. We've had a cruise look
at it this morning and a few little hotspots, but
that's all in the contained area. So we're maintaining a
watch on it today all the same, just because of
the conditions.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
And I know that we've obviously got now this third
day in a row that we've got the fireban for
Greater Darwin and Adelaide River. It sounds as the conditions
I mean, is it Is it a situation because we've
got quite a bit of wind about too.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
That's what it is based on. It's the wind conditions.
And it's so dry as well. We have some dry
condessiones come through the community has dropped off and the
fact that the fuel lad's all cured and very very dry,
so it won't take much for it to kick off.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
So what if people need to know during a fireban period.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
I'll basically just keep an eye on the secure NTE site.
We put a lot of the warnings out their advices
and so forth, so it just if you've seen your area,
just be aware it there's something on, and if there
is a fire in the area, just sort of be
mindful of. There'd be a lot of smoke, don't drive
through any smoke it or keep your head lights on.
If that's the case, There'll be a lot of people

(02:11):
on the ground, so you've got to watch the traffic.
And we just like people they have a bush fire plan,
just sort of have a look at it if you
got if anything threatening your property, I have an evacuation
plan in hand, and make sure that your property is secured.
And maintain firebreaks is the message we push out to
probably too late in a year and out of sort
of go around slashing firebreaks because that can cause by

(02:34):
us too. So anything will be helping us, so it
will be good.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Really, yeah, and tell me over the last sort of
couple of days, because this is the third day in
a row for these challenging conditions. Over the last couple
of days, you spoke about that fire and Howard Springs.
Has there been any others that have been a concern.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
That was the main one yesterday and we had another
one today this morning. But we just some backburn to
contain it. But we're just monitoring anything that's active or
that was sort of recent. Just if there is any
sort of constant hot spots at the moment, we just
keep trying to get on top of it early. We
have extra cruise on today as well, just just so
we can actually get the cruise on the ground early today.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Luig, when are we expecting the conditions to ease?

Speaker 2 (03:16):
It seems to be easing off for the rest of
the week. Today it is reduced from yesterday, but it's
still a fire band day. But we're hoping that in
the next couple of days it'll sort of ease right off.
And yeah, we're hoping for Louis of the week.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
And do you reckon as the weeks go on, I
suppose once the weather gets a bit more humid and
we get a bit of rain, hopefully that calms things
down a bit.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
It definitely will, but we won't expect that for at
least another month or so. Were sort of expecting conditions
this time of the year to be warmer and windier,
so even through the night, so we do this tends
to be the worst time of the year for us.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Yeah, well, look, everybody appreciates the work that you guys do,
and of course bushfires nt as well, and all those volleys,
So hopefully.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Thank you diffult big thank you to all the volleys
and the bushes are helping us out there. It's very
very grateful.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Oh good stuff for Anti Foreign Rescue Service Watch Commander
Luigi cookie r Oh, thank you so much for your
time this morning.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
You're welcome. Thank you, thank you,