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Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, It's been an incredibly busy time

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Speaker 1: of late for our fires, both around town and also

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Speaker 1: out in the rural area. And we're just going to

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Speaker 1: get straight into it because there is so much happening

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Speaker 1: around the place, and we know that it was a

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Speaker 1: busy weekend when it comes to fires, with a fire

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Speaker 1: at Buffalo Creek or Lee Point getting to watch an

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Speaker 1: act level and there was also unfortunately damage to the

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Speaker 1: airstrip that Bushfires intus now joining me in the studio

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Speaker 1: right now, Well, I have got the Chief Fire Control Officer,

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Speaker 1: Tony Fuller. Good morning to you, Tony, Good morning. And

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Speaker 1: then we've also got Joshua Fisher, who is indeed the

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Speaker 1: deputy chief fire officer. Good morning to you, Josh morning, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thank you both so very much for joining us this morning.

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Speaker 1: I know you've just come from a press conference as well.

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Speaker 1: Last week was a shocker, you know, in terms of

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Speaker 1: those fires out in the rural area. And then yesterday, well,

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Speaker 1: Josh I'll ask you about that one first, that fire

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Speaker 1: at Buffalo Creek there at Lee Point.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so that fire was reported just before nine am

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Speaker 2: to us and had a significant response by the Northern

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Speaker 2: Territory Fire and Rescue Service. We had around thirty two

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Speaker 2: firefighters and fourteen appliances at that fire, supported by bushfires

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Speaker 2: NT with their area water bombers, and obviously we'll probably

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Speaker 2: speak to it in at a little bit, but those

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Speaker 2: water bombers were delayed due to some vandalism at a

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Speaker 2: huge airstrip. But thankfully with one those aircraft drible to

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Speaker 2: get overhead and the ground crews got to work.

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Speaker 3: We were able to safely contain that. But a watching

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Speaker 3: act was issued.

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Speaker 2: We were in constant communication with the tourist park and

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Speaker 2: obviously all the visitors that are staying at Lee Point,

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Speaker 2: and obviously the subdivision around mew Ahead and all the

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Speaker 2: residential properties.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, how'd it go? Did you was it? Did it

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Speaker 4: take quite a while to get under control?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a sort of a significant fire activity.

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Speaker 2: We had quite challenging winds that were obviously fanning the fire.

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Speaker 2: There was a gamma grass you know, that changes the

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Speaker 2: fire behavior and makes it ever more dangerous for our

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Speaker 2: firefighters on the ground when they're combating gamma grass field fires.

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Speaker 2: But once we're able to get the aircraft in the

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Speaker 2: air and overhead, we're able to get back burning operations

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Speaker 2: underway and contain the fire.

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Speaker 4: All right, That is good to hear.

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Speaker 1: Now as you touched on, we know that Hughes Airstrip

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Speaker 1: was unfortunately will damage Tony.

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Speaker 4: What had happened?

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Speaker 5: You look, sometime between Friday night and Sunday morning, some

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Speaker 5: people have got into the Hughes Airstrip and spread a

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Speaker 5: lot of oil, etc. Around the place, and I've done

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Speaker 5: a series of burnouts. Hughes Airstrip, for those that don't know,

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Speaker 5: is our staging point for our water bombers. We use

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Speaker 5: Bachelor and Hughes, and if there are fires in the

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Speaker 5: city area, we move our bombers to Hughes where we

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Speaker 5: can refuel them and put more water into them, which

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Speaker 5: just shortens our time response time into the emergency response

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Speaker 5: area and the rural area. So I was really disappointing

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Speaker 5: for our crews when they rocked up there on Sunday

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Speaker 5: morning the final all that damage and as a result,

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Speaker 5: the planes couldn't use hues in that for that response

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Speaker 5: and they had to go to Bachelor, which gives a

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Speaker 5: much longer flying time and return.

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Speaker 1: It's bloody frustrating, but then it's even more frustrating after

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Speaker 1: what we've seen last week where you know, we've been

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Speaker 1: speaking about that fire, particularly the one out at Daily River.

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Speaker 1: I think it was where the where it's you know,

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Speaker 1: we're investigating whether that's been deliberately.

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Speaker 5: Leashy darn sorry, yeah, you know, Unfortunately the majority of

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Speaker 5: their fires are deliberately lit, and it's just a sad fact.

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Speaker 5: So we're continually working with police and reporting them to

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Speaker 5: see if we can't find some of these people.

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Speaker 1: It's frustrating to say the least. I mean, there's lots

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Speaker 1: of other words I'd like to use, but I'll probably

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Speaker 1: get myself in trouble if I use those on the radio.

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Speaker 1: But when you talk about the impact then that that

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Speaker 1: has for you guys when you're trying to fight fires,

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Speaker 1: and when you talk about the added time that is

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Speaker 1: in you know, on top of trying to get out

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Speaker 1: to something like what was unfolding yesterday, how big an

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Speaker 1: impact can it actually have?

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Speaker 2: Look for the Northern Territory fin and Rescue Service, So

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Speaker 2: we talk about that fire, whether in those incidents that

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Speaker 2: we had last week. So since Saturday, the fifth of August,

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Speaker 2: we've responded to one hundred and eighty four grass fires

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Speaker 2: throughout the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 3: The majority of those.

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Speaker 2: Obviously, they place our agency under see some significant strain

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Speaker 2: at times. We've got volunteers that are responding, they're taking

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Speaker 2: time away from their place of work. They volunteer their

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Speaker 2: time to protect and serve Northern Territory community. We've obviously

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Speaker 2: got our career firefighters out there as well. You know,

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Speaker 2: we're in a dry season, it's hot. We've got locations

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Speaker 2: where there's high presence of gamba grass. That adds those

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Speaker 2: challenges and the dangers faced by firefighters, and so where

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Speaker 2: fires have been lit illegally, you know, we have significant

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Speaker 2: concerns for that. That places the community at risk, it

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Speaker 2: places our firefighters at risk. And only on Saturday at

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Speaker 2: Taylor Road we had a large fire in Halts in

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Speaker 2: the vicinity of Taylor Road and will Be Halts Road.

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Speaker 2: We had a firefighter that was transported to Palmston Regional

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Speaker 2: Hospital for heat stress related illness as a result of

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Speaker 2: the exposure to these fires. That fire as well, is

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Speaker 2: under investigation. So fires at are litte, they play significant

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Speaker 2: strain on our agency. We've responded to over three thousand

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Speaker 2: fires since the start of July, right across the Northern territory.

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Speaker 1: When you look at what's gone on last week and

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Speaker 1: then you look at what had happened at the Hughes

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Speaker 1: Airstrip on the weekend, I mean, is it a situation

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Speaker 1: do you think even at Hughes Airstrip on the weekend,

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Speaker 1: where where you've got some idiots that are deliberately targeting

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Speaker 1: the work that bush fires int do.

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Speaker 3: Look, I don't think.

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Speaker 5: So on what happened at us, but we definitely know

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Speaker 5: that there are some pretty malicious people out there lighting

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Speaker 5: fires around the place that are regularly doing it, and

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Speaker 5: we're working closely with police and int fire investigators to

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Speaker 5: identify those people and bring them before the courts because

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Speaker 5: they're putting a lot of people at risk without those planes.

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Speaker 5: You know, the planes aren't there to put out fires.

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Speaker 5: They're there to slow up fires and give our crews

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Speaker 5: some breathing space to put strategies in place to bring

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Speaker 5: those fires under control. So you know, without them, we

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Speaker 5: would have lost homes this year, there's no doubt about it.

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Speaker 5: But they're a fineite resource. There's only four of those

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Speaker 5: planes available to us, and you know they're putting in

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Speaker 5: jeopardy by people putting stuff on airstrips that limits our

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Speaker 5: ability to respond.

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Speaker 4: It's just unbelievable.

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Speaker 1: Now, before I let you both go, tell me how

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Speaker 1: things looking for this week and really what's the message

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Speaker 1: for the community.

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Speaker 2: Look, obviously, we've still got a number of fires that

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Speaker 2: we're working on. We've got fires still up here that

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Speaker 2: our crews will be out at again today to assess.

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Speaker 3: We've got a large fire in our springs.

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Speaker 2: That's a multi agency response between bush Fires, NT, Parks

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Speaker 2: and Wildlife, Anti FI and Rescue Service, ANTI Police and the.

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Speaker 3: Northern Territory Emergency Service supporting us as well.

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Speaker 2: What we're looking like for the top end is we've

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Speaker 2: got fired anger for the first half of this week,

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Speaker 2: but it looks to be increased fire whether again from

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Speaker 2: Sunday where extreme fired anger may be seen in some

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Speaker 2: parts of the Darwin Adelaide riverfire with the forecast area

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Speaker 2: down in Ala Springs. We've got some increased winds that

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Speaker 2: are coming in midweek, So that fire that we have

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Speaker 2: just to the north and northwest of town that will

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Speaker 2: play significant pressure on the containment lines that have been

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Speaker 2: constructed over the last few days protecting Ola Springs. So look,

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Speaker 2: where we've got long hard work ahead of us, but

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Speaker 2: you know, bushfires Enten and Nordon Territory Fire and Rescue

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Speaker 2: Service we work closely together to protect the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: community and will continue to do so.

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Speaker 1: And I guess tiny the message is just make sure

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Speaker 1: that you're not you know, obviously people that are deliberately

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Speaker 1: lighting fires will they're out there doing malicious things and

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Speaker 1: are clearly acting like well my.

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Speaker 4: Words, absolute idiots.

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Speaker 1: But you know others, make sure that you're not, you know,

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Speaker 1: not doing anything like out of ignorre rental stupidity that

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Speaker 1: could light a fire.

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Speaker 5: Look, were asking people to choose what you lose, so actually,

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Speaker 5: you know, put some protection around your houses. There was

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Speaker 5: some Darn River. There's some really good examples where people

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Speaker 5: have put some good breaks around their houses and you

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Speaker 5: could see from the air that they'd put that work in.

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Speaker 3: And unfortunately we.

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Speaker 5: Did lose a house in that Darn River fire, but

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Speaker 5: you know, put the effort in. Now, make sure you

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Speaker 5: get your fire breaks in so we've got somewhere we

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Speaker 5: can work off if we need to come into your

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Speaker 5: property and assist you.

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Speaker 3: And yeah, just like we said, choose what you lose.

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Speaker 1: Well, Chief fire Control Officer with bushfires in t Tony

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Speaker 1: Fuller and the Deputy Chief Fire Officer with Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: Fire and Rescue Service, Joshua Fisher. Thank you both so

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Speaker 1: very much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Katie, thank you