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Speaker 1: We know that bushfire season has begun, and joining us

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Speaker 1: on the line is the acting Deputy Chief Fire Officer

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Speaker 1: Joshua Fisher. Good morning to.

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Speaker 2: You, josh Good morning, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Great have you on the show. It's always this time

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Speaker 1: of the year that we really need to make sure

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Speaker 1: that we're prepared as possible for bushfire season, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Most certainly is obviously the dry seasons here, and with

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Speaker 2: that is the smell of smoke that's constantly in the

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Speaker 2: air as landowners are getting out in about and trying

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Speaker 2: to manage the fuel load that is on their properties.

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Speaker 1: But I'm a townie, so I live in town. I

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Speaker 1: don't have to really clear my block. But I know

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Speaker 1: plenty of people that live out in the rural area

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Speaker 1: and beyond they do spend quite some time getting their

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Speaker 1: blocks ready for the fire season.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they certainly do. It's really important that for us

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Speaker 2: as firefighters, in the event that a fire does occur,

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Speaker 2: that we have access to the property. Under the Foreign

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Speaker 2: Emergency Act, it's responsibility of the land owner to have

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Speaker 2: that four meter fire break within the primitive boundary of

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Speaker 2: their property and around any built infrastructures such as their

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Speaker 2: home or a shed. It's really important to have that

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Speaker 2: green belt if they can. It's nice, lush green grass

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Speaker 2: around their home. If they have that ability, just to

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Speaker 2: give that added protection that in the unlikely circumstance that

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Speaker 2: the fire does occur an impact on their land, that

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Speaker 2: their home is best prepared as possible.

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Speaker 1: And is that something that people should have already done

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Speaker 1: or is there still time to do that.

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Speaker 2: There is still time to do it. Obviously, in some

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Speaker 2: areas of our emergency response area, people might not have

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Speaker 2: access to some parts of their blockers. They may be

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Speaker 2: quite low lying and still have water contained within, and

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Speaker 2: so access to that area might be a little bit

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Speaker 2: impossible at this time. So there is still ample opportunity

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Speaker 2: for land owners to comply with the requirements of the Act.

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Speaker 2: But for those that are on sort of more drier land,

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Speaker 2: most certainly they should already have their fire break in place.

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Speaker 2: Thee curing of grass is rapidly occurring. We're seeing that

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Speaker 2: grass dry out, seeing gamber grass dry out, so fires

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Speaker 2: are occurring. We're seeing an increase in the turnout of

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Speaker 2: our crews, both volunteers and career firefighters. Two grass fuyres

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Speaker 2: that are occurring in the emergency response.

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Speaker 1: Area and Josh, are we expecting it to be a

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Speaker 1: pretty rough sort of fire season given we had all

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Speaker 1: that rain during the wheat.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. It's been a great growing opportunity for grass

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Speaker 2: owing to that above every rainfall. So we are seeing

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Speaker 2: and increasing fuel loads in our pre urban environment more

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Speaker 2: particularly where there is gamber grass and mission graps other

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Speaker 2: introduced grass species. So it's really important that land owners

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Speaker 2: are preparing, that they're mowing, they're slashing, they're getting out

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Speaker 2: there managing their property for the risk of fire. It's

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Speaker 2: really important. You know, we can't be there on the

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Speaker 2: day when there's an unprepared property and attempt to try

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Speaker 2: and save that home. That puts our firefighters at grave

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Speaker 2: risk if they're trying to protect property that is unmanaged.

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Speaker 1: So better to be well prepared early. I understand as well.

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Speaker 1: Even yesterday, I thought I'd seen alert come through that

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Speaker 1: there was a bush fire out at Berry Springs or

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Speaker 1: a bit further field. Was that correct?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I understand that bush fires into would responding to

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Speaker 2: fires in their response area, and I believe that there

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Speaker 2: was one at Berry Springs, But we also had a

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Speaker 2: number of smaller wildfires that did occur in our emergency

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Speaker 2: response area yesterday, so you know the likelihood of fires

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Speaker 2: occurring is starting to increase. So on top of having

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Speaker 2: your fire breaks within your boundary, you must also have

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Speaker 2: a bush by survival plan. So that's knowing what you

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Speaker 2: will do on days where a fire may occur and

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Speaker 2: being able to communicate that to your family so that

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Speaker 2: everyone knows what actions you're going to take to survive.

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Speaker 1: And Josh, I understand you weren't or you didn't have

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Speaker 1: to go out to the hotel that was where the

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Speaker 1: fire was overnight, but have you still got are there

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Speaker 1: still officers out there? And I would suspect that there's

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Speaker 1: still those investigations underway.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's correct. We've got a fire investigator on site

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Speaker 2: this morning to determine the course of that fire.

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Speaker 1: Well, josh Fisher, it's always good to catch up with you.

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Speaker 1: We really appreciate your time. Thanks so much for having

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Speaker 1: a chat with us.

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Speaker 2: Jeers, thanks y, thank you.

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Speaker 1: That is Acting Deputy Chief Fire Officer Joshua Fisher. There