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Speaker 1: We know that.

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Speaker 2: Unfortunately, over the course of the weekend, well juggling the

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Speaker 2: terrible tragedy that had occurred off Melville Island, or on

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Speaker 2: Melville Island, i should say, on the Tee Islands yesterday,

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Speaker 2: our authorities were also juggling bushfires and a number of

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Speaker 2: blazers raging in rural parts of the Northern Territory in

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Speaker 2: what had been described on Friday as the potential catastrophic

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Speaker 2: fire conditions. Now a Darwin River bushfire reached emergency warning

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Speaker 2: level on Friday and a watching act was issued for

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Speaker 2: a bushfire at Nunama yesterday. Joining me on the line

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Speaker 2: right now to give us a bit of an update

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Speaker 2: is Bushfires INT.

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Speaker 3: Is the incident Controller Tony Fuller. Good morning to you, Tony.

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Speaker 1: You good morning, Keny.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much for your time this morning, mate. How

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Speaker 2: did things go over the weekend?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty busy. Yesterday it was obviously a big fire

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Speaker 1: out of here at Nunama with the road, so the

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Speaker 1: fire starting on a Redcliffe Road and then pushing across

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Speaker 1: towards the Stuart Highway. Cruise worked for about six or

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Speaker 1: seven hours on that one. They're actually going back out

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Speaker 1: there at the moment because we're a few smokers and

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Speaker 1: there's a bit of a win up again, so we're

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Speaker 1: hoping that we can get on top of that and

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Speaker 1: make sure there's no reignition.

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Speaker 2: So how many bushfires were Cruise called out to on

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Speaker 2: the weekend in total?

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't there'd be more than twenty fires across the

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Speaker 1: NT that we're watching at the moment. Some of those

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Speaker 1: are passable fires. We're contacting the pastors to make sure

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Speaker 1: they're going okay. We've got a big one in south

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Speaker 1: of Alice that we're watching at the moment and Cruise

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Speaker 1: have gone out there this morning to put some more

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Speaker 1: burns in on that, and then there's a couple around

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Speaker 1: Catherine and then up top end here was obviously the

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Speaker 1: big one yesterday at Nunama.

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Speaker 2: So talk us through what happened yesterday at Nunama, Tony.

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Speaker 2: Was there a risk to property and to people? How

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Speaker 2: did it go?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's definitely a risk of properties and people. We

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Speaker 1: had planes, three helicopters, a couple of loaders, about thirty

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Speaker 1: five volunteers and stuff on that fire. We also had

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Speaker 1: police assisting with traffic direction and some road closures in place.

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Speaker 1: It was pretty hairy for a while there with some

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Speaker 1: squat overs, but the cruise did really well and got

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Speaker 1: some backburns in and it didn't go as far as

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Speaker 1: we expected it could have gone to.

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Speaker 3: And was there any property lost?

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Speaker 1: No, nothing's been reported this yet to us, and no injuries,

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Speaker 1: which is always great. But the cruiser, as I said,

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Speaker 1: of watching them roll out the gate at the moment

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Speaker 1: to get back over there to make sure that doesn't

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Speaker 1: start up again on us.

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Speaker 2: That is incredibly good news. I know that it would

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Speaker 2: have been, as you've pointed out, tough conditions and bloody

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Speaker 2: busy job by the sounds of things for your career firefighters,

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Speaker 2: but also for all of the volunteers. Do we have

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Speaker 2: any idea how that one at Nunamar or any of

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Speaker 2: the others have started.

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Speaker 1: Most of our deliberatey missions. We know the one yesterday

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Speaker 1: was started on the road side. It's obvious to us

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Speaker 1: a suspicious Whether it was a cigarette or someone delivery

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Speaker 1: lighting we still yet to establish. But it started right

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Speaker 1: on that side of the road and spread really quickly

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Speaker 1: with a wind.

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Speaker 2: Tony, How frustrating is that when I mean, you guys

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Speaker 2: were out on Friday. We're out on Friday everybody's saying

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Speaker 2: that it's going to be potentially catastrophic conditions, and it

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Speaker 2: seems that some people just do not seem to be

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Speaker 2: getting the message.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, look, we're fortunately on Saturday, the police actually set

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Speaker 1: up emergency operations and they did a lot of trialing

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Speaker 1: for us and our cruise are also out and about

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Speaker 1: making sure they're seen hopefully prevent some of these ignitions.

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Speaker 1: But we really need people in the rural area and

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Speaker 1: that to just be if they're going to do any

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Speaker 1: mowing or slashing or work outside, just to have some

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Speaker 1: fire fighting gear on hand and wet down in areas

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Speaker 1: they may be working into try and stop any accidental ignitions.

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Speaker 1: We've had quite a number of fires this year started

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Speaker 1: with people just doing mowing on rural blocks. Just having

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Speaker 1: some fire fighting gear there, check where you've been and

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Speaker 1: if you've got to do well in or grinding of that.

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Speaker 1: I know at least two fires been on grinders this year,

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Speaker 1: significant fires where people just haven't wept down the area

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Speaker 1: after they finished their work.

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Speaker 2: So by the sounds of things, in many cases it

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Speaker 2: can be fairly simple to actually just follow those steps

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Speaker 2: to make life a heck of a lot easier.

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Speaker 3: For everybody.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I know two of the fires from grind As

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Speaker 1: they started, you know, one of them was a couple

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Speaker 1: of hours afterwards, and one was probably half an hour

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Speaker 1: an hour after the people stop work. So just wedding

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Speaker 1: down the area once you finish work may stop a

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Speaker 1: potentially dangerous fire.

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Speaker 3: Tony on Fry.

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Speaker 2: You know, it was described that we're going to have

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Speaker 2: catastrophic conditions. How long has it been since we've sort

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Speaker 2: of had catastrophic conditions? I mean, is this happening more

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Speaker 2: often at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Look, when we say catastrope, that change is pretty quickly

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Speaker 1: between extreme and catastrophic. All depends on what the predictions

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Speaker 1: are with the Weather Bureau in riation of winds. It

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Speaker 1: was predicted to be fairly catastrophic on Saturday. The winds

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Speaker 1: that changed and brought down the forecasts a little bit

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Speaker 1: for us. But there are patches around that are still

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Speaker 1: rated as catastrophic and we're trying to maintain and watch

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Speaker 1: on those. But generally when we put the broadcast out

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Speaker 1: it's for a large area, but there are spots in

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Speaker 1: the large areas that have been catastrophic level.

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Speaker 2: Tiny Any fires that you're keeping a really close eye

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Speaker 2: on this morning. Are are things fairly well under control

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Speaker 2: at this point?

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Speaker 1: The Alice spire is one we're working on pretty hard

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Speaker 1: at the moment. I know the cruiser out looking at that,

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Speaker 1: and at this stage it's just going around and making

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Speaker 1: sure that all the fires that we've been fighting I've

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Speaker 1: been contained. The one of the brigades has been out

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Speaker 1: since this morning checking on the Nunama fire, and we've

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Speaker 1: got more crews going out there at the moment. There's

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Speaker 1: a fairly large area and lots of smoking trees, so

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Speaker 1: whatever they can to black those areas out now.

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Speaker 2: Just before I let you go this morning, what are

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Speaker 2: the conditions firstly today and for the remainder of the week.

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Speaker 3: Are we expecting any reprieve?

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Speaker 1: Look likely to be a fireman again tomorrow? Hopefully we'll

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Speaker 1: get to meeting up Wednesday or Thursday, but we'll just

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Speaker 1: wait and see what the forecast is tell us today.

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Speaker 1: And I had to go off to them as well.

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Speaker 1: They've been working all weekends with us out here at

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Speaker 1: Nunam the bomb stuff, keeping us up to date with

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Speaker 1: wind changes and trying to inform their cruise whirst they

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Speaker 1: can of what potential risks are coming their way.

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Speaker 3: How the cruise going today?

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Speaker 2: I know that they're absolute troopers, but how are they

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Speaker 2: all going after what has been a really busy few weeks.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we're getting a good tired. But like I said,

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Speaker 1: they're really, really professional and great at their job. The

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Speaker 1: volleys are outstanding. Seem to see a lot of the

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Speaker 1: same volleys out regularly on all these firegrounds, and you know,

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Speaker 1: without them would be very very would be struggling heaps.

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Speaker 1: We can't survive without the volunteers, and the amount of

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Speaker 1: work they do on the fire ground is unbelievable.

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Speaker 2: Well, Tony Fuller, thank you for your time this morning

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Speaker 2: and for all of your efforts. Thanks so much to

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Speaker 2: all of those crews, all of those volunteers. You know,

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Speaker 2: I was talking to somebody who lives in the rural

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Speaker 2: area over the weekend and she'd said to me, it

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Speaker 2: can be really bloody scary when you hear those fires

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Speaker 2: and you can hear them nearby, and they're all so

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Speaker 2: incredibly grateful for the work that you guys do.

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Speaker 3: So thanks very much.

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Speaker 1: No, thank you. I certainly relied on the water bombers

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Speaker 1: a lot more late and it's recently and nice to

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Speaker 1: have in the back pocket to bring them out. Absolutely yeah, thanks,

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Speaker 1: thanks for you and your listeners, no.

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Speaker 2: Worries, it all good on you, Tony. Thanks so much mate.

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Speaker 2: We'll talk to you again soon