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Speaker 1: You know that Saint John were indeed pretty busy over

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Speaker 1: the course of the weekend. And joining me on the

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Speaker 1: line is the director of Ambulance Services, Andrew Thomas. Good

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Speaker 1: morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Andrew Hambury, Good morning to you, Kadan.

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Speaker 1: Andrew. Busy weekend. I guess it's always pretty busy, isn't

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Speaker 1: it for Territory Day.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Always we get a few extra jobs that come

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Speaker 2: through on Territory Day, and obviously this year, being on

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Speaker 2: a Saturday night, you know, flowed into what is probably

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Speaker 2: our normal busy work on a Saturday night as well.

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Speaker 2: So really great amazing work done by our crews that

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Speaker 2: were working and also the volunteers and paramedics that were

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Speaker 2: out at the community events providing that first aid and

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Speaker 2: covering that emergency treatment for people that called the ambulance

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Speaker 2: on Saturday night. Did you have to.

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Speaker 1: Put on extra cruise, Andrew?

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Speaker 2: So we had our normal crewing, but obviously we went

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Speaker 2: for these sort of nights, and you know, other sort

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Speaker 2: of bigger nights such as New Year's Eve and some

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Speaker 2: of the other sort of events. We quite often put

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Speaker 2: in plans to be able to upscale if we need

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Speaker 2: to regarding surges of activity. But you know, we had

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Speaker 2: our normal crewing across the Northern Territory and all locations,

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Speaker 2: and as I said, we had an extra crew in

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Speaker 2: Darwin down at the Middle Beach events along with our

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Speaker 2: cabulous volunteers that were down there that we're keeping the

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Speaker 2: community safe at that big event down there.

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Speaker 1: Now, tell us in terms of the volume of Triple

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Speaker 1: zero calls from Darwin and Palmerston regions, how many or

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Speaker 1: did Saint John get an increased number?

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Speaker 2: So Saturday night was probably in terms of call volume

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Speaker 2: is probably around about a normal night for us. So

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Speaker 2: though we did receive a number of calls that related

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Speaker 2: to firework injuries, a number of them were people calling

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Speaker 2: up and receiving some advice over the phone and then

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Speaker 2: a number of cases that we responded to and in

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Speaker 2: the end across Darwin and Parmis and region we transported

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Speaker 2: a total of six people through the hospital with sort

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Speaker 2: of varying levels of injury from minor burns and you know,

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Speaker 2: some injuries to the face too, you know, the serious

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Speaker 2: case out of Virginia.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, talk us through what has been you know, we

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Speaker 1: know that it's been reported that there was that major

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Speaker 1: incident with two people injured twenty three year old and

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Speaker 1: a man in their fifties as well.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, a bit after, you know, sort of

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Speaker 2: eight point thirty, just before nine, you know, our crews

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Speaker 2: responded out there to advise that a bit of a

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Speaker 2: massive mishap with some of the fireworks there, and you know,

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Speaker 2: and our cruise got there. They've found that the young

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Speaker 2: gentleman had a traumatic amputation of his arm. So our

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Speaker 2: cruise did a really great job in terms of treating

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Speaker 2: him there and providing him appropriate treatment and pain relief.

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Speaker 2: They managed to package up the limb as well, and

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Speaker 2: they trans ordered him urgently through to the Royal Darwin

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Speaker 2: Hospital for you know, the staff there to do what

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Speaker 2: they could just to try and you know, work to

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Speaker 2: get his arm put back on. So I haven't had

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Speaker 2: a follow up on how he is at the moment,

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Speaker 2: but obviously we wish him the best.

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Speaker 1: Goodness me, that sounds incredibly traumatic. Have you, like, in

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Speaker 1: your years with Saint John's, have you seen a situation

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Speaker 1: where somebody has had a limb severed as a result

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Speaker 1: of fireworks? No?

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Speaker 2: I mean we've been fortunate in the years that I've

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Speaker 2: been up here, and from my understanding, is you know,

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Speaker 2: we traditionally have seen a number of them. We have

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Speaker 2: seen some injuries where particularly just people with having injuries

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Speaker 2: to their hands and to their fingers, particularly from fireworks,

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Speaker 2: and also we've had you know, last year we had

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Speaker 2: someone that had a large firework go off in their face.

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Speaker 2: So you know, we are seeing unfortunately occasionally those more

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Speaker 2: serious injuries. But you know, all things probably considered and

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Speaker 2: given the amount of fireworks that were led off over

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Speaker 2: the over the Saturday night, you know, I think, you know,

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Speaker 2: the majority of people were out there and doing it

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Speaker 2: in a responsible way and enjoying themselves. And you know,

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Speaker 2: as I said, we only ended up transporting six through

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Speaker 2: to hospital. There were another obviously, I believe, you know,

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Speaker 2: into Health had some people self presenting, but you know,

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Speaker 2: all in all, not too many, and obviously I think

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Speaker 2: everyone's enjoyed the day and celebrations.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, this is it the majority. You know, I do

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Speaker 1: really do things pretty safely. Just again, just to go

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Speaker 1: back to that incident in Virginia, do we know the

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Speaker 1: status of the fifty eight year.

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Speaker 2: Old so mind was saying, is that again he copped

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Speaker 2: a bit of an injury to the GT's leg and

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Speaker 2: growing area there, so he actually presented through the hospital

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Speaker 2: and Agains had believe some surgery and of belief is

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Speaker 2: in a in a stable condition, but not not sure

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Speaker 2: if any further details.

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Speaker 1: Sorry, just coughing there in the background. It does sound

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Speaker 1: as though, like you said, the large majority did the

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Speaker 1: right thing and were pretty responsible. So by and large,

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Speaker 1: would you say, you know, like, how would you write

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Speaker 1: things going andrew on on Saturday night?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So look, you know, I think while there was

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Speaker 2: a couple of unfortunate instants, and I think, you know,

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Speaker 2: nobody goes out of their way to you know, deliberately

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Speaker 2: cause harm to themselves. So I think, you know, unfortunately

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Speaker 2: there there has been a couple of minor instances, but

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Speaker 2: all things being you know, we didn't see any callouts

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Speaker 2: across you know, other parts of the territory. It was

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Speaker 2: only in the Darwin region and Parmestan regions that we

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Speaker 2: actually had those callouts where we responded to emil And

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Speaker 2: so I think, you know, all and all people acted responsibly,

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Speaker 2: which is that, you know, following the safety messages that

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Speaker 2: we've been putting out in the days prior to territory day.

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Speaker 2: So and you know that's the aim of it is

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Speaker 2: people to have a good time, celebrate and do it safely.

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Speaker 1: Yeah spot on. Well, a big thank you to everybody

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Speaker 1: at Saint John's for their efforts over the weekend, particularly

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Speaker 1: those crews that were out and about trying to help

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Speaker 1: people that had been injured, but also to all of

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Speaker 1: those volunteers because you know, simply push. If those volunteers

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Speaker 1: weren't there and weren't helping out at various different events,

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Speaker 1: they just wouldn't be able to happen.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, I think the volunteers and the crews that

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Speaker 2: were down at Mindle Beach, I believe they saw around

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Speaker 2: about you know, ten or twelve people that down there

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Speaker 2: that came up and saw them for various first aid

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Speaker 2: sort of requirements down there, and amazing effort by the

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Speaker 2: volunteers across the territory. And not only for our volunteers,

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Speaker 2: but for the rest of the emergency services and the

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Speaker 2: fires and bush fires, for the work that everyone does

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Speaker 2: on those nights to keep the community safe.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, spot on. Well. Director of Ambulance Services, Andrew Thomas,

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Speaker 1: good to speak with you this morning. Thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for your time today.

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Speaker 2: No prom Katie have right now.

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Speaker 1: You two thank you