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Speaker 1: Yesterday there was a bush byre emergency down south in

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Speaker 1: the Onkaparinga region. This morning, there's still a smoke alert

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Speaker 1: that has been issued just in the last little while,

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Speaker 1: in the last hour for on Kapringa Hills near Woodcraft

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Speaker 1: and the southern Mount Lofty Rangers, and it could be

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Speaker 1: affecting areas including Happy Valley in Clarendon as well. Smoke,

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Speaker 1: of course, can affect your health, so if you don't

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Speaker 1: want to be impacted by that, close the doors, the windows,

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Speaker 1: stay indoors, avoid the smoke if particularly if you have

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Speaker 1: health concerns. But let's have a chat with James Hooner,

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Speaker 1: CFS Duty Commander. Cru is still there, James, good morning.

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Speaker 2: Good morning of you.

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Speaker 1: Yes, they are what sparked it? Do we know?

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Speaker 2: We'll investigate that in due course with the police, as

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Speaker 2: we do with all of our fires, but at the

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Speaker 2: moment our focus is on securing the proven and making

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Speaker 2: sure that fire doesn't escape.

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Speaker 1: Is it still it is not posing a thread anymore?

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Speaker 1: I don't imagine.

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Speaker 2: No, it's not, although as you've identified, there is still

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Speaker 2: a lot of smoke and there may be a lot

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Speaker 2: of activity with firefighter Cruise and potentially some heavy equipment,

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Speaker 2: and if we need to, we may bring back some

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Speaker 2: aircraft as well because of the amount of smoke that

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Speaker 2: fire is producing.

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Speaker 1: What was the response yesterday? Clearly aircraft were part of it.

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Speaker 1: You had crews all around the place there. You told

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Speaker 1: people to, you know, put the bushfire plans into action,

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Speaker 1: and there was an opportunity for them to leave. Now

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Speaker 1: was the urgent warning at one point in the afternoon.

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Speaker 2: Yes, Well, it's obviously a very populous area and we've

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Speaker 2: got a lot of people who would have been consumed

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Speaker 2: being very close to that fire. We were able to

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Speaker 2: get fifty on ground firefighters there pretty quickly, and then

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Speaker 2: the support from the air, we're able to prevent that

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Speaker 2: fire from impacting on those properties.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so you know, obviously properties at risk, and this

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Speaker 1: is the scary part about it. I mean, it wasn't

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Speaker 1: even a bushfire prone day.

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Speaker 2: No, No, I mean I think conditions at this time

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Speaker 2: of year or into summer generally can always start a bushfire.

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Speaker 2: When we get to those stream or catastrophic days, we're

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Speaker 2: probably talking about fires that are much harder to control,

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Speaker 2: but it doesn't stop a fire starting any day in summer.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and it was a cooler day yesterday, what twenty

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Speaker 1: three or so degrees. I think we peaked in the

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Speaker 1: city and that just goes to show how dangerous this

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Speaker 1: time of year can be. Was it a bit windy

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Speaker 1: up there? I mean, did that exacerbate it at all?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Look, I think another piece of this was the

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Speaker 2: amount of the type of fuel that was there at

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Speaker 2: dry and yuke of trees at this time of the year,

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Speaker 2: ken start a fire. We were pretty happy that we're

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Speaker 2: able to contain that fire into the evening. So I

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Speaker 2: think that's the trick, is making sure that we get

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Speaker 2: on it quickly and deal with it.

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Speaker 1: It could have been a lot worse, couldn't. I mean,

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Speaker 1: if you had one of those extreme days and the

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Speaker 1: whot winds blasting through ahead of the change, it just

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Speaker 1: could have been so dire. Absolutely, Yeah, James. The important

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Speaker 1: thing to come out of this OK, no property damage,

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Speaker 1: all of that. You did a great job the cruise

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Speaker 1: everyone there, from yourselves and all the other emergency responsors,

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Speaker 1: have a bushfire plan ready and a survival plan and

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Speaker 1: make the decision early. That has to be the warning

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Speaker 1: for everyone in a bushfire risk area.

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Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, have the plan to be ready to action it.

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Speaker 2: It's so what we always say, But this really brings

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Speaker 2: it home, doesn't it.

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Speaker 1: It does, And probably the most surprising thing, maybe even

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Speaker 1: for people living there, it's mostly residential these days. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Sure there's parks and scrub land and everything else around there,

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Speaker 1: but a lot of that area is residential, and that's

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Speaker 1: even scarier.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, And of course the smoke plane yesterday could

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Speaker 2: be seen from quite an instance, and it's hard always

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Speaker 2: to detemine whether it's close to your home or not,

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Speaker 2: if you're further away, or if you're sound working. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So all right, So make sure you've gotten and your

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Speaker 1: website gives people advice on how to prepare a plan.

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Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, The Safest Website is a good source to

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Speaker 2: go to if you wanted to keep informed about what's

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Speaker 2: happening with fires, the alert SAP or listening to yourselves

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Speaker 2: or other ways of finding information out.

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Speaker 1: Good on you, James, appreciate your time today. Thank you, James.

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Speaker 1: Honnot who is CFS duty Commander Cruz still out there

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Speaker 1: around on Kapringa Hills dealing with the aftermath of that

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Speaker 1: and making sure the fire remains contained. Assistant Commissioner Phil

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Speaker 1: NewART Sapole on the line, and of course he is

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Speaker 1: in charge of Nomad, Operation Nomad, which is geared up

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Speaker 1: to look out for ARSONUS Assistant Commissioner, good morning, Thanks

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Speaker 1: for coming on, You're welcome.

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Speaker 3: Good morning.

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Speaker 1: It is timely, isn't it As obviously as devastating as

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Speaker 1: any fire can be. And fortunately no damage here and

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Speaker 1: no injuries. But it's a timely warning this side of summer, it.

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Speaker 3: Most certainly is. It's we're just thankful that the mfs

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Speaker 3: CFS could extinguish the fire last night. And of course

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Speaker 3: we're still looking into the cause of it, so we'll

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Speaker 3: have investigated Adam the scene today.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, good, and you'll get onto that now. From Operation

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Speaker 1: Nomad's point of view, what's happening this summer years all

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Speaker 1: sorts of technology. You know who people are that you're

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Speaker 1: looking for, and I suppose you're always looking for some

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Speaker 1: you don't know about.

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Speaker 3: Most definitely we'll start with the ones we've got some

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Speaker 3: idea on that we are under Operation Nomad. We identify

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Speaker 3: some people of interest that either have lift fires previously

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Speaker 3: or have a propensities like fires. So these are the

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Speaker 3: people we will proactively visit on days of extreme and

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Speaker 3: catastrophic fire danger. And then there are some under Operation

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Speaker 3: Nomad who have been issued a bush fire afend of

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Speaker 3: monitoring Wader one person in particular, if one issued another

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Speaker 3: one issued late last week, which were still in the

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Speaker 3: process of activating, and suppose the unknownst Matthew. We always

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Speaker 3: appeal for people, particularly on days of high fire danger,

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Speaker 3: if during the hills or other areas, to keep a

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Speaker 3: look at for behavior that just doesn't fit with this

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Speaker 3: environment or looks a bit suspicious and give the police

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Speaker 3: a call or give crime stop support.

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Speaker 1: What does that look like, though, Phil, because you think

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Speaker 1: you know you're driving through the hills, you see something

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Speaker 1: and you think, now do I need to call police?

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Speaker 1: They're busy, they're understaffed. Under a source, we know all

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Speaker 1: this how suspicious? What's suspicious? Give us an example absolutely so.

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Speaker 3: It might be on days of extreme or catastrophic fire danger.

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Speaker 3: It might be a car part by the side of

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Speaker 3: the road. It might be someone you see hanging around

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Speaker 3: an area where there's thick vegetational scrub for no real

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Speaker 3: apparent reason, to the point where you think that just

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Speaker 3: doesn't fit. And I'd probably say to people usually gap

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Speaker 3: field if it doesn't look quite right, ask yourself what

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Speaker 3: they're doing there, Give the police a call. Yet we're

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Speaker 3: always we've always got a task to do. But this

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Speaker 3: is really important to us because we know that an

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Speaker 3: out of control bushfire presents a real danger community. We

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Speaker 3: don't want that to occur. Preventions far better than fighting

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Speaker 3: and trying to extinguish a large bushbiracles.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, that's exactly right, and again the risk can

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Speaker 1: come out of nowhere. As yet, were you surprised that

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Speaker 1: there was a fire yesterday?

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Speaker 3: Look, it's unfortunately during the fire dangerous season, that's the

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Speaker 3: time we're most likely to see fires. I'll be very

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Speaker 3: interested to understand what the cause of that was. We

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Speaker 3: know during changing weather conditions we can have lightning strikes.

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Speaker 3: Sometimes fire start by a spontaneous combustion, and unfortunately there

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Speaker 3: are other times where it's either reckless but using angle

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Speaker 3: grinders or driving cars and drive vegetation would deliberate in

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Speaker 3: which we call it an arsen which we throw the

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Speaker 3: full weight of our investigations forward to try and find

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Speaker 3: the person responsible because of the risk of the people.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, well, that's exactly it. And I recall

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Speaker 1: in other years you had what sixty seventy on people.

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Speaker 1: Operation Nomad would keep tabs on and license plate tech

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Speaker 1: and all that sort of thing. But is it still

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Speaker 1: around that number.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it is, Matthew. So there are seventy six people

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Speaker 3: this year whom are persons of interest. So most of

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Speaker 3: those are over the age of eighteen. We've got a

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Speaker 3: couple of people who are just under the age of

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Speaker 3: eighteens that we go and visit. So on days as

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Speaker 3: I mentioned, extreme catastrophic, we will send police officers around

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Speaker 3: to have a chat and talk to people, just understand

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Speaker 3: where they are. But it's always that ever present risk

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Speaker 3: of an unknown person or circumstances presenting. That's why we

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Speaker 3: absolutely appeal to the community keep their eyes open, particularly

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Speaker 3: in those areas of the hills, cropping lands out north

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Speaker 3: and down south around the Victor area as well. Give

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Speaker 3: us a call if you see something you're not quite

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Speaker 3: comfortable with.

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Speaker 1: Okay, well that's a good way of looking at it.

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Speaker 1: Now I'd be curious to know what that chat is like.

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Speaker 1: So you go around to a person of interest house

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Speaker 1: and you say, don't go out today, don't even think

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Speaker 1: about it. What happens.

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Speaker 3: Look, what we'll do is we will go and talk.

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Speaker 3: You'd be surprised at how often when we are conducting

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Speaker 3: inquiries or investigations will police officers, whether it be our

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Speaker 3: uniform members or own detects, will go and talk to people,

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Speaker 3: find out what they're up to for the day, see

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Speaker 3: if they're home. We do that when we check on

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Speaker 3: people or compliance with bail. We'll do it with people

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Speaker 3: when they have a bush fire offender management order in place.

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Speaker 3: And again, people that unfortunately we've demonstrated, haven't propene to

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Speaker 3: light fires or involved in fire behavior, we'll go and

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Speaker 3: talk to them and find out what they're up to

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Speaker 3: for the day. Need not be punitive, indeed be very regularly.

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Speaker 3: There a good relationship with people and a relationship of

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Speaker 3: trust where we can exclude these people from types of

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Speaker 3: behavior that cause community problems or talk them through. And

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Speaker 3: there are different programs we can recommend people enter into

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Speaker 3: to help curb the propensity for lighting fires, which is

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Speaker 3: really important because we can't be there twenty four seven.

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Speaker 1: Of course, what happens if they're not home, Yeah, well

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Speaker 1: that's then something will continue to make inquires on.

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Speaker 3: We might call around the next day, we might chat

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Speaker 3: to neighbors, we might look through the computer system and

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Speaker 3: work out who some of their associates are and maybe

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Speaker 3: make some inquiries through there. There's a whole variety of

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Speaker 3: things we can do. And that's not to say, of course,

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Speaker 3: every person of interest that is outlining a firepefually that's

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Speaker 3: not the case. But these are the people whom we

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Speaker 3: have to concentrate our efforts somewhere. But these are the

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Speaker 3: people that we have determined through a whole series of

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Speaker 3: assessments probably have a high propensity that fire danger behavior.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, indeed. All right, Well look you're in the

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Speaker 1: hills particularly as part of this, as you said, and

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Speaker 1: it doesn't hurt people hearing this from any officer from SAPLE,

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Speaker 1: but obviously more generally, particularly this time of year, stay

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Speaker 1: safe on the roads.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, we'd ask everyone to drive safe. We had

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Speaker 3: a terrible weekend where unfortunately some people were both injured

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Speaker 3: and lost their lives this time of view in particular,

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Speaker 3: which that's our appeal. Just ask people to take extra

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Speaker 3: care this time. Have a safe and happy family time.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely all right. I appreciate your time today, as his

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Speaker 1: commissioner fil knew it. Thank you.