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Speaker 1: We are heading across right now to catch up with

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Speaker 1: bushfires NTS. Andrew Turner, Good morning to you, Andrew.

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Speaker 2: Okay, Katie, how are you not too bad?

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Speaker 1: Mate? I understand it's been a pretty busy weekend for

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Speaker 1: you guys. And in fact, on Friday morning we had

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Speaker 1: keysy Epuric on the show and I know that added

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Speaker 1: her property some fairly significant fires. Talk us through what's

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Speaker 1: gone on over the last couple of days.

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Speaker 2: Well, it certainly was a busy week last week, possibly

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Speaker 2: one of the busiest of the season so far. We

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Speaker 2: had two fires that went to watch an act on Friday,

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Speaker 2: which is almost the highest level of warning that we

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Speaker 2: can put out. Both fires took a fair bit of

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Speaker 2: effort to bring under control. In addition to that, we're

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Speaker 2: also assisting the Fire and Rescue Service with a number

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Speaker 2: of their fires as well. Pretty busy. And then over

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Speaker 2: the weekend the humidity came back in with a bit

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Speaker 2: of vengeance and we were able to rest and tidy

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Speaker 2: up a bit after those couple of fires.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, And what kind of conditions are we expecting

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Speaker 1: for the week Are we expecting some of that humidity

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Speaker 1: to stay in place?

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's a real mixed bag. So tomorrow the next

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Speaker 2: dry spell starts. The surge reaches the Barkley and Gregory

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Speaker 2: fire weather forecast areas from tonight and slowly moves northwards.

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Speaker 2: In the meantime up here tomorrow, the Bureau is talking

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Speaker 2: about a sixty or seventy percent chance of rain closer

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Speaker 2: to the coast before the dry spell hits us. And

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Speaker 2: then so on Wednesday and Thursday, they're expecting severefire weather

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Speaker 2: rain right up until the time where we get SEVEREFI

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Speaker 2: whether it's a really.

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Speaker 1: Mixed bag, and so when are we expecting that severe

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Speaker 1: fire weather.

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Speaker 2: So it's moving through the bottom of the base of

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Speaker 2: the territory now, it's expected to be in the Barkley

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Speaker 2: by midnight tonight and quite a blowy morning there, and

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Speaker 2: then the Egory region tomorrow before reaching the top end

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Speaker 2: on Wednesday.

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Speaker 1: All right, now, Andrew, you know, the big question I

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Speaker 1: think on everybody's lips, particularly for those that live out

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Speaker 1: in the rural area, is what kind of conditions are

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Speaker 1: you anticipating and preparing for for those celebrations which we're

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Speaker 1: postponed for Territory Day until the twenty ninth, which is Sunday.

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Speaker 2: The preparations are much the same as we undertake each year.

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Speaker 2: You know, the volunteers are obviously ready and out in

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Speaker 2: the community. We've got arrangements in place with our agencies,

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Speaker 2: including the Fire and Rescue Service. Our public messaging and

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Speaker 2: awareness goes up a big notch just to make people

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Speaker 2: aware of the implications of fires. And we also put

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Speaker 2: in place of incident management arrangements, so we have our

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Speaker 2: duty officer has an incidet management team behind and we've

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Speaker 2: got more people on call ready to go. The difference

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Speaker 2: I guess this year is that fires later in the

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Speaker 2: fire season are generally more difficult to control and take

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Speaker 2: a longer period to extinguish. So that's the key message

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Speaker 2: that we're getting out. If a fire does start and

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Speaker 2: we need to know about it early and we need

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Speaker 2: to ensure that it's completely extinguished.

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Speaker 1: And are you sort of comfortable, you know, are you

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Speaker 1: comfortable with the lay of the land? I suppose when

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Speaker 1: it comes to Sunday and those fireworks being left off.

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Speaker 2: The Bureau of Meteorology we work closely with and we'll

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Speaker 2: get a really good idea of what the forecast, whether

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Speaker 2: it's like a little bit closer to the day, generally

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Speaker 2: three or four days out, we've got a pretty good

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Speaker 2: indication of how windy and how dry it's going to be,

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Speaker 2: so we'll have a better idea. But regardless whether it

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Speaker 2: falls on a particularly windy day or not, the preparations

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Speaker 2: are much the same. We need to ensure that people

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Speaker 2: understand that they're fuel the grasses and whatever around their

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Speaker 2: property is managed, that we've got fire breaks in place.

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Speaker 2: They are going to let off fireworks, and they obviously

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Speaker 2: look out for any animals on the property and make

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Speaker 2: sure that they've got the resources required to put it

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Speaker 2: out if one of these fireworks does get going, and

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Speaker 2: make sure it's all dowsed entirely. Take care with them there.

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Speaker 2: They can be quite dangerous and you need to report

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Speaker 2: any fires. That's the key messaging that we'll be pushing out.

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Speaker 1: Hey, just back to those other fires over the over

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Speaker 1: the weekend and towards the end of last week. Was

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Speaker 1: there much in the way of property lost or did

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Speaker 1: you manage to keep keep you know, most of those

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Speaker 1: properties pretty safe.

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Speaker 2: The fires that we attended, there was no reported property

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Speaker 2: that was damaged or lost. We did assist with the

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Speaker 2: fire and rescue service at a fire at Holts and

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Speaker 2: unsure whether there was any losses at that particular fire.

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Speaker 2: We managed the aircraft in that particular incidence, touch Wood,

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Speaker 2: it was nothing that's been reported as yet.

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Speaker 1: Well, let's hope that towards the end of the week,

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Speaker 1: you know, we don't get two windy conditions, that things

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Speaker 1: stay pretty calm, or we're certainly hoping that is the case,

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Speaker 1: particularly as we head into to those fireworks day celebrations

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Speaker 1: of the day when people are going to be able

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Speaker 1: to let them off. Andrew Turner, it's always good to

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Speaker 1: catch up with you. Thank you for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks very much, Katie, thank you