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Speaker 1: You would have noticed there's quite a few fires around

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Speaker 1: the top end yesterday. Bushfires NT issued a number of

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Speaker 1: alerts yesterday out in the rural area and beyond. Quite

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Speaker 1: a bit of smoke caused after a small fire near

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Speaker 1: the airport as well. That one doesn't fall under the

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Speaker 1: realm of Bushfires NT. But nonetheless they have been very busy.

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Speaker 1: I reckon and joining me on the show right now

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Speaker 1: to tell us a little bit more. Bushfires NT. Senior

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Speaker 1: fire management Officer Lee humph Us, Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Lee, Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: How are you yeah, really good? Thanks so much for

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Speaker 1: your time this morning. Lee. How have things been going

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Speaker 1: in terms of fires being experienced so far this dry season?

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Speaker 2: It's been hectic. We've had twenty one while fires last week,

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Speaker 2: which is more than double what we had this time

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Speaker 2: last year, and six of those were on Saturday alone.

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Speaker 1: Wow, So twenty one over the course of a week,

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Speaker 1: six in one day alone. What's the cause are they?

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Speaker 1: I mean, are they naturally occurring? Is somebody? Are people

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Speaker 1: doing the wrong thing?

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Speaker 2: Well, there's no lightning about it at the moment, so

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Speaker 2: it's taking humans to light them and most of them

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Speaker 2: are just just lit. They're not you know, sometimes we

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Speaker 2: have lawnmowers start fires things like that. Most of these

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Speaker 2: have just been leaking inaccessible areas and.

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Speaker 1: So Lee, based on what you've said there, this is

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Speaker 1: more than what we would usually experience at this time

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Speaker 1: of the year, or certainly comparatively to last year.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this time last year, we had eleven wild fires

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Speaker 2: last week and we had twenty one this year. So

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Speaker 2: it's it's nearly double.

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Speaker 1: Now talk me through.

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Speaker 2: It's been wind driven, yeah, right, and.

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Speaker 1: Lee with that wind, does it also make it more

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Speaker 1: difficult to sort of get those fires under control or

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Speaker 1: have they been quite large in size?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, some of them have been. We had fun on

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Speaker 2: Saturday down their Bachelor that by the time we got

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Speaker 2: around the perimeter and like stopped it getting into people's properties.

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Speaker 2: So it was about eleven thousand headcares.

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Speaker 1: Wow.

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Speaker 2: Ok. You know, we've had a lot of crews working

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Speaker 2: right through the night, which is our fabulous volunteers. They've

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Speaker 2: been working very, very hard.

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Speaker 1: They do an incredible job. And I guess you know

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Speaker 1: that's something that a lot of people probably realize but

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Speaker 1: some may not, is that Bushfires Int. Is largely reliant

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Speaker 1: on the service of incredible volunteers, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, And a lot of them work, so they come

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Speaker 2: home from work and then jump in a fire unit

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Speaker 2: and come out and help west the fires. It's pretty amazing.

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Speaker 1: Territory legends if you ask. Mainly, I think that's phenomenal stuff. Hey,

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Speaker 1: with what we've seen so far this dry season, you know,

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Speaker 1: are we expecting it to be a pretty busy season

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Speaker 1: this year?

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Speaker 2: And yeah, the indications at the moment are it is

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Speaker 2: probably going to be a little bit busy. And it

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Speaker 2: depends on the weather obviously, and because we had that

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Speaker 2: late rain, we're having a few difficulties because trying to

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Speaker 2: chase the fires because we end up getting balked. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: it is lining up to be a fairly busy ukading.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Right, so because we did have that good wet season,

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Speaker 1: it means that the ground's quite wet and for some

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Speaker 1: of the crews, they're heading out there into the bushland

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Speaker 1: and ending up bolked. Absolutely, that must make it bunny hardy.

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Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. Not only are you fighting fires,

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Speaker 1: but then you're having to worry about your vehicle get bogged.

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Speaker 1: That would be a pain in the neck to say

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Speaker 1: the least.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, tell me.

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Speaker 1: You know, on a week like last week where you've

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Speaker 1: got twenty one wildfires, that's a massive number. How many

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Speaker 1: volunteers do you actually need to be able to keep

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Speaker 1: something like that under control? Well?

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Speaker 2: We were stretched last week. Yeah, I think we no

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Speaker 2: only had every unit that is in the fleet out,

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Speaker 2: especially that on Saturday when they just kept appearing. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: we and we can't alwaysket everybody that we Sometimes we

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Speaker 2: just hit the end of what resources we have. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and we sort of work out we basically treache the

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Speaker 2: fire so it's threat to life threat properly. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And with those fires, with the twenty one wildfires, was

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Speaker 1: there any threat to property or anything? Or were wonderful

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Speaker 1: volunt tears and bushfires into able to keep things under control?

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Speaker 2: Well most of them, we are, quite a few of them.

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Speaker 2: We were burning behind people's properties to stop the wild

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Speaker 2: fire getting into their properties. That's knew, all of them. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Right now, Lee, tell me, is it too late at

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Speaker 1: this point in time? And I know for a lot

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Speaker 1: of our listeners out in the rural area and beyond,

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Speaker 1: they'll be aware, But is it too late for people

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Speaker 1: to sort of clear their blocks? So where are we

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Speaker 1: at in terms of making sure that we're prepared for

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Speaker 1: for the dry season and for those fires that we

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Speaker 1: expect each year.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we'd really like people to have their firebrakes in.

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Speaker 2: We start firebrak inspections on during the first and we

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Speaker 2: understand some areas of wet, but just prepare your blocks

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Speaker 2: for the fire season that's coming. Clear away high fuel

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Speaker 2: loads from around your houses and put your firebracks in. Please.

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Speaker 1: Well, I really appreciate your time this morning, Lee, And

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Speaker 1: a big shout out to all those volunteers as well, Hey,

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Speaker 1: that are doing a phenomenal job. Sounds like a really

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Speaker 1: busy week last week and over the weekend, and no

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Speaker 1: doubt there's probably going to be more of that to

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Speaker 1: come over the coming weeks.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, big thank you to our volunteers and thank you Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thank you Lee. Do we are you ever on the

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Speaker 1: lookout for more volunteers, Lee, If there's anybody listening this

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Speaker 1: morning who thinks, do you know what I did it

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Speaker 1: in another stage or I'm really keen to get involved?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, And if they ring the headquarters, we'll point them

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Speaker 2: in direction of their closest brigade. Brigades are always happy

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Speaker 2: to welcome you members well.

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Speaker 1: Lee, humph Us. It is great to speak to you

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Speaker 1: this morning. Thank you so much for your time.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you