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Speaker 1: While many Territorians we're probably struggling to get out of

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Speaker 1: bed this morning. It was a bit cold, reaching for

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Speaker 1: the slippers and the jacket. We are in fire danger

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Speaker 1: season now. Fire bands were declared at the weekend. They

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Speaker 1: remain in place for many parts of the Northern Territory today,

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Speaker 1: impacting Darwin, Adelaide, River, Catherine Gregory South East and the

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Speaker 1: Barkley North regions. And joining me on the line to

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Speaker 1: give us a bit of an update on how things

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Speaker 1: are going from bushfires into incident Controller Tony Fuller, Good morning, Tony.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Now Tony, how are things looking today when you sort

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Speaker 1: of look at those firebands and what's in place.

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Speaker 2: We've got a fairly decent fire going at the moment

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Speaker 2: on Jenkins Road south of Jenkins Road, so we've got

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Speaker 2: three or four cruise out there trying to contain that one.

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Speaker 2: Just let people know they're in the area. There is

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Speaker 2: a fair bit of smoke impacting on Jenkins Road, so

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Speaker 2: they can take it easy through there. They'd be much appreciated.

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Speaker 2: We've got number fire cruise work in an area. But

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Speaker 2: other than that, we've had a couple of busy days,

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Speaker 2: mainly in the humpty Do region and another fire at

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Speaker 2: Gumpoint and someday I think we had one a tumbling

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Speaker 2: Waters as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Right, so it sounds like there has been a beat

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Speaker 1: on for you guys, like have your cruise. Has there

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Speaker 1: been a lot of need for the cruise and volleys

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Speaker 1: to be out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. Over the last couple of days, there's been

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Speaker 2: a couple of fires in humpty Do that we've been

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Speaker 2: assisting our career fire fighters with and f volunteers. We've

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Speaker 2: had to send the planes into humpy Do twice in

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Speaker 2: the last two days. So yeah, we've got those and

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Speaker 2: obviously we've got a couple others burning around the place

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Speaker 2: that we're monitoring.

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Speaker 1: Tiny. How are the conditions looking today, because, like I

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Speaker 1: said in the intro, it's nice and cool out there,

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Speaker 1: but sometimes that means it's pretty ordinary conditions in terms

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Speaker 1: of fires.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Look, it's still fairly dry, there's a lot of fuel

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Speaker 2: out there, and it's obviously very windy and that's our

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Speaker 2: main danger is the wind, particularly if we get a

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Speaker 2: fire amongst some of the gamber. Gamber can spot for

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Speaker 2: a fair way away, so that's one of their main concerns.

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Speaker 2: We don't want any of that going on?

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Speaker 1: Now, what do people need to know when there is

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Speaker 1: that sort of that declaration of there being you know,

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Speaker 1: the fire advice or there is you know, the different

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Speaker 1: advice in place, what do they really need to know?

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Speaker 1: I suppose at this time of the year, as we

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Speaker 1: do see more fires around.

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Speaker 2: Look, just that any permise have been issued for them

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Speaker 2: to burn obviously canceled for those time periods, so they

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Speaker 2: can't do any prescribe burning that they may have planned

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Speaker 2: to do. And if they're going to light well further,

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Speaker 2: don't like campfires, but just not to leave any campfires

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Speaker 2: or cooking fires unattended. And if you're using any machinery,

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Speaker 2: make sure you've got equipment around to put out a

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Speaker 2: fire if a fire accidentally does start and they're the

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Speaker 2: main main.

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Speaker 1: Cords, and do you reckon like it's today looking as

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Speaker 1: though it's going to be a bit of a challenging day.

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Speaker 1: Or are we expecting that those winds might die down

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Speaker 1: a bit this afternoon.

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Speaker 2: No, Look, we're expecting that we will get another assessment

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Speaker 2: from the Weather Bureau this afternoon and there's fair chances

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Speaker 2: that will extend firevan into tomorrow. And obviously what they say,

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Speaker 2: but it's we were sort of planning towards Wednesday anyway

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Speaker 2: before we started lifting them.

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Speaker 1: Tony, how are you guys going? How are all your

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Speaker 1: cruise and your volunteers? Because I know that bushfires nt

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Speaker 1: do a cracking job. All of our fire is do

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Speaker 1: a cracking job right from you know, in our in

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Speaker 1: our cities like Darwin and Alis and the other town centers,

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Speaker 1: but particularly you know when you're head out, how head

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Speaker 1: out to the rural areas. There's lots of volunteers as well, working,

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Speaker 1: isn't there?

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Speaker 2: Yes, certainly is And a lot of our volunteers are

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Speaker 2: like flying ployout todd workers, so they come and go

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Speaker 2: in numbers depending on what their shifts are. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: without them, we wouldn't be able to do what we're doing.

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Speaker 2: So we really appreciate their support and the good relationship

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Speaker 2: we've got with Empty Fire and their volunteers as well. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I mean shutther out a lot in the last couple

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Speaker 2: of weeks.

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Speaker 1: Hey, I know, earlier this month as well, bushfires into

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Speaker 1: we're sort of urging land owners to have their properties

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Speaker 1: prepared after a home and other assets were lost. Have

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Speaker 1: things improved a bit on that front?

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Speaker 2: Look, that's an ongoing process. We're continually inspecting premises where

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Speaker 2: we've got another round of inspections going on at the moment,

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Speaker 2: So it's just a continual process and let us will

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Speaker 2: go out and reminding people of their obligations and when

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Speaker 2: it's the weather's good enough for them to do it,

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Speaker 2: which we would like them to get the fire.

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Speaker 3: Breaks in and clear out any assets you don't want

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Speaker 3: lost because we don't fight structures fires and we don't

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Speaker 3: fight a car fire, so if it's in the remote area, their.

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Speaker 2: Chance that we're just going to have to let it burn. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: we don't have the capability to fight those type of fires.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, I know. There was also some issues about

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Speaker 1: people using drones near fires, which led to a helicopter

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Speaker 1: being grounded while trying to respond to a blaze. That

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Speaker 1: was a bit earlier or a few weeks ago. Have

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Speaker 1: there been any other incidents like this or is that

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Speaker 1: settled down a bit too.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we haven't seen any incidents, but as soon as

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Speaker 2: we see a drone in the area, we stop all

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Speaker 2: aerial assets in the area. So you know, if you've

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Speaker 2: got properties in the area that you don't want last

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Speaker 2: we want to send the planes in. I'd suggest that

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Speaker 2: anyone sees a drone to let our fire crews know

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Speaker 2: so we can get it out of the way before

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Speaker 2: we send our air assets in.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Tony, anything else I should know about this morning

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Speaker 1: before we let you go.

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Speaker 2: No, thanks for your help and thanks for getting the

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Speaker 2: message out and appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: No worries at all, and a big thank you to

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Speaker 1: you guys, and you know, all all of our fieries

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Speaker 1: and also all of those volunteers, because goodness knows, it's

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Speaker 1: a very, very busy time of the year, so we

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Speaker 1: appreciate you having a chat to us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Cheers, Thanks Codin, Thank you,