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Speaker 1: Wanting me live in the studio right now. It's the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory Fire and Rescue Service Chief Fire Officer Mark Spain.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, Good morning listeners.

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Speaker 1: Now an incredibly busy time at the moment for our

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Speaker 1: fires and Spainy. We did just get a text message

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Speaker 1: a short time ago from Judith saying, Hi, Katie, there's

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Speaker 1: a large fire behind Lake Leana which looks as though

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Speaker 1: it's moving towards homes. What's the situation from your perspective?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks very much, Catie. Yes, we have got a

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Speaker 3: situation occurring there. I've got Morra and Berry mccruz there.

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Speaker 3: We'll probably dispatch volunteers into there shortly. We have Bushfires

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Speaker 3: anti aircraft up there to give us an overall picture, so.

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Speaker 2: We'll get that map properly.

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Speaker 3: But if people have got concerns, is just to keep

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Speaker 3: all the windows closed, especially for smoke. There are high

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Speaker 3: winds at the moment. We are in a fire danger

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Speaker 3: period today.

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Speaker 1: And so are there any threat? Is there any threat

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Speaker 1: to homes at this point in time.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, No, we'll have assets on there. There's always potential

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Speaker 3: threat if people have prepared their blocks properly. We know

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Speaker 3: they're five acre blocks in behind there, so in the

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Speaker 3: wind direction, so we will put our assets in there

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Speaker 3: to do asset protection, but we'll keep the reports coming through.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, sounds good. We'll certainly keep an eye

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Speaker 1: on things as well. Are there any other fires still

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Speaker 1: sort of going at the moment of still smoldering that

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Speaker 1: you guys are concerned about?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Probably.

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Speaker 3: I think the issue we have with the high winds

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Speaker 3: is that we can't always put all the bushfires out,

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Speaker 3: so they could be smoldering for days, like stumps burning

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Speaker 3: underground hollows. So if that gets a run, we will

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Speaker 3: attend to it. But having a fire danger days is

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Speaker 3: always a concern to us, but it's more of a

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Speaker 3: concern when we come onto what we call shoulder days.

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Speaker 3: So they're not fire danger fireband days, they are the

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Speaker 3: days either side of those firebands, which will cause us

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Speaker 3: a bit of grief as well, because the winds will

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Speaker 3: still be there, but it's just not reaching the temperatures

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Speaker 3: that would classes as a fireband.

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Speaker 1: Yeah right, And I did notice this morning when I

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Speaker 1: woke up how windy it was. What kind of impact

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Speaker 1: does that have for you guys? Then when you are

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Speaker 1: fighting those fires.

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Speaker 2: What it does. Luckily we've got bushfires and tea.

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Speaker 3: They put on extra aircraft for us across here, so

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Speaker 3: we can get eyes in the sky fairly quickly. But

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Speaker 3: what actually happens is we get a lot of spotting

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Speaker 3: fire spotting, so they can start two or three four

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Speaker 3: hundred meters ahead of the actual firefront. Then that also spreads,

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Speaker 3: so we've just got to be able to try and

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Speaker 3: head them.

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Speaker 2: Off for the pass.

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Speaker 1: And how are things looking for today, like, you know,

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Speaker 1: other conditions quite concerning or how are you feeling about today?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, all five band days are concerning for us, as

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Speaker 3: are the shoulder days as I've just talked about.

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Speaker 2: But as we saw the other day.

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Speaker 3: On Monday, you know, one fire kicked off in the

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Speaker 3: afternoon and then all of a sudden, we've got every

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Speaker 3: asset five aircraft up in the air. Even though one

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Speaker 3: listener described them as cessna's flying around having a sticky beak,

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Speaker 3: they're actually our water bombers working. So yeah, we've got that,

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Speaker 3: And we just wanted people to mindful if they're on

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Speaker 3: the roads and that's thick smoke going across the roads.

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Speaker 3: We can't get to everything. We tried our best to

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Speaker 3: slow traffic down and put traffic management in, but it's

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Speaker 3: such a rapid, fast moving with these wins. Slow down,

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Speaker 3: headlights on, don't drive like maniacs because we all struggle

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Speaker 3: to get to you from a ray crash rescue purpose.

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Speaker 1: Yeah right, So is that because you've just got so

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Speaker 1: many firefighters on the actual fires.

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Speaker 2: That's it.

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Speaker 3: We pretty well get everything out on there. We will

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Speaker 3: deploy assets, We have our rescue tenders ready to go.

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Speaker 3: But as you can imagine smoke going across the road,

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Speaker 3: people trapped in cars, it's just not going to be

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Speaker 3: a difficult it will be a difficult position.

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Speaker 1: Spainy, have people been largely sort of adhering to that

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Speaker 1: message in terms of not driving through the really smoky

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Speaker 1: areas or have some people been doing the wrong thing

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Speaker 1: in this space.

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Speaker 2: Let's just be blunt here, Cadie.

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Speaker 3: When people have got forty k zones sixty k zones

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Speaker 3: in clear air, people don't adhere to that. So when

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Speaker 3: they're approached with smoke, it's just like at the beginning

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Speaker 3: of the wet season, people drive to the conditions of

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Speaker 3: dry season. Therefore, I just need people to focus on

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Speaker 3: what's ahead of them drive to the conditions and drive

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Speaker 3: to their own ability.

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Speaker 4: Now I do want to ask you.

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Speaker 1: I know that the seasonal bush fire outlook has now

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Speaker 1: been released for September to November. How's that looking for

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Speaker 1: us in the Northern Territory at this point?

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Speaker 3: It's looking if you go, what's going on? We're pretty

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Speaker 3: chuffed with that because we're looking at early rains coming through,

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Speaker 3: so the humidity will pick up later on September October.

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Speaker 3: So we're looking at some positive early rains as predicted

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Speaker 3: by the bomb and if that comes to fruitionan we'll

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Speaker 3: put us in a better state. But mind you, that

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Speaker 3: goes for the whole of the territory, but also we

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Speaker 3: do go into the Alice Springs or the southern region

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Speaker 3: becomes our fire season as the summer months come on.

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Speaker 1: Now we also know today in some good news, you've

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Speaker 1: got some of the firefighters, the graduate firefighters.

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Speaker 3: They're going to be graduating absolutely after nineteen weeks of

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Speaker 3: training at the college. We've got them marching out today.

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Speaker 3: We'll have for those members going to Alice Springs and

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Speaker 3: the other eight will remain up and daln On shift

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Speaker 3: across the greata Dalane area in Palmerston. What happens there though,

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Speaker 3: is they will hit the road running straight into the

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Speaker 3: fire season.

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Speaker 2: But in that nineteen.

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Speaker 3: Weeks they've actually learned a fair bit over ray crash rescue,

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Speaker 3: has matt structured fires, compartment fire training, urban search and rescue.

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Speaker 3: So there's a whole lot of skills that they've been

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Speaker 3: passed on to by the instructors. I have to do

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Speaker 3: a big shout out to the instructors, given that COVID

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Speaker 3: has really hampered our ability to have resourcing available and

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Speaker 3: all that sort of stuff. They've had to mix and

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Speaker 3: match and make everything work. So it's real credit to them.

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Speaker 3: But congratulations to the forests who are going to graduate today.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely wonderful stuff. And are they are? Some of them

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Speaker 4: sort of territory born and bred. Do you know Spainy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, one's a return offender.

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Speaker 3: He's a great guy. He went and served in the military.

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Speaker 3: He did his service to the military. He's re signed

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Speaker 3: with us after a number of years and pleasingly, we've

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Speaker 3: got a number of exhilar fire fighters that work on

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Speaker 3: my five track stations. They've taken a big step and

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Speaker 3: become crew fire fighters.

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Speaker 4: Oh that's wonderful stuff.

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Speaker 1: Fantastic and no doubt they're going to be busy as

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Speaker 1: soon as they start, by the look of thanks.

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Speaker 3: Their first shift, they'll be hitting the road and they'll

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Speaker 3: be on the ground running.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Good stuff.

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Speaker 1: Well, Mark Spain, the Chief Fire Officer for the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory Fire and Rescue Service. We appreciate your time and

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Speaker 1: I know that it's a really busy, busy time for

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Speaker 1: you guys.

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Speaker 4: When is that severe fire danger due to end?

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Speaker 2: It's probably we're looking at today twelve o'clock tonight.

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Speaker 1: Yep.

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Speaker 3: However, I just asked the listeners to be miful shoulder days.

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Speaker 3: Shoulder days are extremely so if you'll just be careful

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Speaker 3: to avoid grinding, avoid slashing even on the shoulder days,

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Speaker 3: if you could.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, good advice. Mark Spain, thanks so much for your

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Speaker 4: time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Cotie,