September 3, 2024 • 7 mins
The Chief Fire Control Officer, Bushfires NT and the Chief Fire Officer have declared a 24-HOUR FIRE BAN PERIOD for today for:
The DARWIN AND ADELAIDE RIVER FIRE WEATHER FORECAST AREAS.
This includes the Darwin, Batchelor and Adelaide River Emergency Response Areas, Litchfield Municipality and Coomalie Shire.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now we know the chief Fire Control Officer and Bushfires
NT and the chief fire Officer having declared a twenty
four hour fireban.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Period for today.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Now joining me on the line is the NT chief
fire controller for Bushfires NT.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Tony Fuller. Good morning to you. Good morning, Katie, Tony.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Busy day or a busy week, I'm assuming it's how
are things looking for today? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Look obviously extreme again today our third fireband in a row,
which is a third for the season. Actually so hasn't
been too bad of a season in relation to firebands.
But yeah, we had a bit of a busy day
yesterday with a couple of fires started, one at Marraquoi
and one of Leonine Road. The one a Leanine I
(00:46):
rode the crews got onto pretty quickly. They're actually out
about nearby and saw the smoke and responded straight away
and got hold of that way. Yeah, which was good.
Saved us a lot of work. Yeah, well it's good.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
It is good when they get out, like when they're
able to be there early and you know, save that work.
It does seem like each year some of those locations
we kind of hear them come up again and again.
But I suppose they are just areas that are more
prone to bushfire, are they tony?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yeah, Look, there are ones that go every year and
we try and mitigate against those. We've done it. You'll
notice that there's a fairly large fire going on and
down river Dam at the moment.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
But that fire, it'll burn for a few days, but
that's contained into mitigation where it was done earlier in
the years, so we're not too worried about that. We're
keeping an eye on it, but it's certainly well within
area that was burned earlier on in the year, which
is good for get that chance to do that mitigation
and then we don't have to worry too much about
those type of fires.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Well, and it just hopefully means that it's maybe not
as bad as we get further into the season.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Like, how is the outlook looking.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Over the next couple of weeks or is it still
sort of a bit hard to tell if it's going
to be a bad season or not.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Look, there is still a lot of fuel out there,
so we're expecting that we'll be going for another month
or two at least in the top end, probably into
November at this stage. But there is a national meeting
on at the moment AFHAC, and there'll be some seasonal
outlooks provided later in the week that we'll give everyone
(02:26):
an overview what we're expecting to cross the NTA And
as a bit of a early heads up, it's an
embargo that it's not looking good for us. We're gonna
have a pretty bad season.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah right, So all hands on deck and hoping people
look buddy prepared their blocks.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah. Look, and I'll probably get in trouble for this one,
but anyone who wants to make their lawn today just
tell them. I said, yes, we had too. Fire started
yesterday and that was some people mowing their lawns from
the slasher and was a right eye law and more
and yeah lucky one of them was obviously we got
(03:04):
onto that pretty quickly, and the other one the landholders
got hold of. But yeah, today is not the day
to be my lawns.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah and tiny In terms of people preparing their blocks,
have the majority done the right thing up until this
point or are there still some blocks that you know
that they haven't look.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
About eight per ninety of the inspections we've done have
been very good. A lot of the rural land holders
BA certainly are where what the issues are and they
do put their brakes in, but there's still those a
very few places that haven't got breaks in. And there
was a photo that we put up on Facebook the
other day of one of my crews driving on a
(03:50):
gambre firebreak. It was literally all gamber and they're trying
to push along the fence line and it was totally
covered in gamber, which is makes it very hard for
the crews to try and put a fire out. And
we keep telling people we're not we put bushfires. We
don't do structure fires, so we're not trained or equip
(04:11):
for that sort of fire. So if we'll do whatever
we can to stop the fire from hitting your structures,
but if the structure starts going up, there's very little,
if anything, we can do, and the crews will actually withdraw.
They're not putting themselves at risk.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, well that's exactly right, Like you've got to make
sure that the crews are safe as well.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
But people need to do the right thing.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yeah, exactly, And the majority of landowners do they do
do the right thing. They know that those firebreaks may
not necessarily stop a fire from a crossing from their neighbor.
But I'll certainly give our crews the best opportunity to
get in there and put blackbirds in it or do
other mitigation work to stop the fire crossing into their property.
(04:54):
So you know, if there's big winds on, nothing's going
to stop. You know, we gamble will spot one to
two kilometers away at least yelp. So we can't with
those wins, we can't stop that. We can certainly work
with the landholders.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, Tony, any other messages really for our listeners this morning.
I mean, we know it's a It is that fireban
for today, which means that really nobody's allowed to light
a fire or cause a fire to be You've said there,
you know, don't jump on and decide to mow your
lawn today. That's the cause of two of those fires yesterday.
I mean, really, is it just like be cautious?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Yeah, exactly. And if you see a fire ring triple
zero straight away the police communication centers set up that
all fires should go through them and don't ring us
and will work out where it is and work out
whether it's us or the anti fire will respond to
that fire. But we want people to ring that number
(05:52):
straight away triple zero and just let them know where.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
The fire is.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
But look, we've got more high fire danger for the
rest of the week, right up to Sunday at this stage,
so at least Saturday. So just be aware that it's
just because it's not extreme, it's still bad weather and
for fire and just be be cautious when you're out
(06:17):
and the bed. Yeah, and restrict your lord mind made
in the afternoon or if you are going to know
the law and have someone watching you with some sort
of extinguish it so if something does happen, you put
it out. Last year we had a lot of people slashing,
and that we had a lot of fires. Yeah, we
want people to slash, but it's a bit late on
(06:37):
a firebrand day to be daught.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah, do you reckon people just don't realize that that's
going to that it could potentially cause a fire or
do you think they just think, oh goodness, it's you know,
like there's a fire band today.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I've got to make sure my yards, my yard's prepared.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Yeah, I don't know, it's some of that for sure,
but it's just it's one of those things that does happen,
and then it's surprising how easy. It happens just a
little sparked and can start up pretty big fire really
really quickly. Yeah, when it gets into the long grass
and it takes off, very hard to pull them up.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, well bushfires in tes Tony Fuller, good to speak
with you this morning.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I really appreciate your time. I know you're a busy man.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Thanks every good day you too. Thank you
Now we know the chief Fire Control Officer and Bushfires
NT and the chief fire Officer having declared a twenty
four hour fireban.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Period for today.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Now joining me on the line is the NT chief
fire controller for Bushfires NT.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Tony Fuller. Good morning to you. Good morning, Katie, Tony.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Busy day or a busy week, I'm assuming it's how
are things looking for today? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Look obviously extreme again today our third fireband in a row,
which is a third for the season. Actually so hasn't
been too bad of a season in relation to firebands.
But yeah, we had a bit of a busy day
yesterday with a couple of fires started, one at Marraquoi
and one of Leonine Road. The one a Leanine I
(00:46):
rode the crews got onto pretty quickly. They're actually out
about nearby and saw the smoke and responded straight away
and got hold of that way. Yeah, which was good.
Saved us a lot of work. Yeah, well it's good.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
It is good when they get out, like when they're
able to be there early and you know, save that work.
It does seem like each year some of those locations
we kind of hear them come up again and again.
But I suppose they are just areas that are more
prone to bushfire, are they tony?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yeah, Look, there are ones that go every year and
we try and mitigate against those. We've done it. You'll
notice that there's a fairly large fire going on and
down river Dam at the moment.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
But that fire, it'll burn for a few days, but
that's contained into mitigation where it was done earlier in
the years, so we're not too worried about that. We're
keeping an eye on it, but it's certainly well within
area that was burned earlier on in the year, which
is good for get that chance to do that mitigation
and then we don't have to worry too much about
those type of fires.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Well, and it just hopefully means that it's maybe not
as bad as we get further into the season.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Like, how is the outlook looking.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Over the next couple of weeks or is it still
sort of a bit hard to tell if it's going
to be a bad season or not.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Look, there is still a lot of fuel out there,
so we're expecting that we'll be going for another month
or two at least in the top end, probably into
November at this stage. But there is a national meeting
on at the moment AFHAC, and there'll be some seasonal
outlooks provided later in the week that we'll give everyone
(02:26):
an overview what we're expecting to cross the NTA And
as a bit of a early heads up, it's an
embargo that it's not looking good for us. We're gonna
have a pretty bad season.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah right, So all hands on deck and hoping people
look buddy prepared their blocks.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah. Look, and I'll probably get in trouble for this one,
but anyone who wants to make their lawn today just
tell them. I said, yes, we had too. Fire started
yesterday and that was some people mowing their lawns from
the slasher and was a right eye law and more
and yeah lucky one of them was obviously we got
(03:04):
onto that pretty quickly, and the other one the landholders
got hold of. But yeah, today is not the day
to be my lawns.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah and tiny In terms of people preparing their blocks,
have the majority done the right thing up until this
point or are there still some blocks that you know
that they haven't look.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
About eight per ninety of the inspections we've done have
been very good. A lot of the rural land holders
BA certainly are where what the issues are and they
do put their brakes in, but there's still those a
very few places that haven't got breaks in. And there
was a photo that we put up on Facebook the
other day of one of my crews driving on a
(03:50):
gambre firebreak. It was literally all gamber and they're trying
to push along the fence line and it was totally
covered in gamber, which is makes it very hard for
the crews to try and put a fire out. And
we keep telling people we're not we put bushfires. We
don't do structure fires, so we're not trained or equip
(04:11):
for that sort of fire. So if we'll do whatever
we can to stop the fire from hitting your structures,
but if the structure starts going up, there's very little,
if anything, we can do, and the crews will actually withdraw.
They're not putting themselves at risk.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, well that's exactly right, Like you've got to make
sure that the crews are safe as well.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
But people need to do the right thing.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yeah, exactly, And the majority of landowners do they do
do the right thing. They know that those firebreaks may
not necessarily stop a fire from a crossing from their neighbor.
But I'll certainly give our crews the best opportunity to
get in there and put blackbirds in it or do
other mitigation work to stop the fire crossing into their property.
(04:54):
So you know, if there's big winds on, nothing's going
to stop. You know, we gamble will spot one to
two kilometers away at least yelp. So we can't with
those wins, we can't stop that. We can certainly work
with the landholders.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, Tony, any other messages really for our listeners this morning.
I mean, we know it's a It is that fireban
for today, which means that really nobody's allowed to light
a fire or cause a fire to be You've said there,
you know, don't jump on and decide to mow your
lawn today. That's the cause of two of those fires yesterday.
I mean, really, is it just like be cautious?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Yeah, exactly. And if you see a fire ring triple
zero straight away the police communication centers set up that
all fires should go through them and don't ring us
and will work out where it is and work out
whether it's us or the anti fire will respond to
that fire. But we want people to ring that number
(05:52):
straight away triple zero and just let them know where.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
The fire is.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
But look, we've got more high fire danger for the
rest of the week, right up to Sunday at this stage,
so at least Saturday. So just be aware that it's
just because it's not extreme, it's still bad weather and
for fire and just be be cautious when you're out
(06:17):
and the bed. Yeah, and restrict your lord mind made
in the afternoon or if you are going to know
the law and have someone watching you with some sort
of extinguish it so if something does happen, you put
it out. Last year we had a lot of people slashing,
and that we had a lot of fires. Yeah, we
want people to slash, but it's a bit late on
(06:37):
a firebrand day to be daught.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah, do you reckon people just don't realize that that's
going to that it could potentially cause a fire or
do you think they just think, oh goodness, it's you know,
like there's a fire band today.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I've got to make sure my yards, my yard's prepared.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Yeah, I don't know, it's some of that for sure,
but it's just it's one of those things that does happen,
and then it's surprising how easy. It happens just a
little sparked and can start up pretty big fire really
really quickly. Yeah, when it gets into the long grass
and it takes off, very hard to pull them up.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, well bushfires in tes Tony Fuller, good to speak
with you this morning.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I really appreciate your time. I know you're a busy man.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Thanks every good day you too. Thank you
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