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Speaker 1: Well, it was a busy weekend for our firefighters and

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Speaker 1: also volunteers with several bushfires in challenging conditions, with one

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Speaker 1: even getting well to that watch and to act level.

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Speaker 1: Now joining us on the line for a bit of

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Speaker 1: an update from bushfires into incidents. Incident Controller Colleen Bremner,

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Speaker 1: Good morning to Colleen.

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Speaker 2: Oh, good morning, Katie. How are you very well?

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Speaker 1: Probably better than you guys, It sounds like you had

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Speaker 1: a really busy weekend. How many fires were your crews

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Speaker 1: called out to over the long weekend?

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Speaker 2: We had all up across the territory there was fifteen

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Speaker 2: fifteen fires, of which in the Darn rural alone that

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Speaker 2: was twelve. So we had one in Alice Springs, two

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Speaker 2: in Catherine or in the Catherine area, one on the

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Speaker 2: highway near Binjari community and all the rest. Unfortunately we're

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Speaker 2: around out of Darwin, and we also had to provide

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Speaker 2: some support obviously Saturday, Sunday and Monday to anti fire

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Speaker 2: and rescue because there was also five going in the

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Speaker 2: fire and rescues area.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, tell us about those conditions, Colleen, It does sound

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Speaker 1: like it was a busy weekend.

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Speaker 2: Look, yeah, absolutely, we it's our fourth today is our

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Speaker 2: fourth fireban in a row. Certainly, I think Sunday Someday

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Speaker 2: definitely saw a real peak in activity. Katie. We would

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Speaker 2: have a quiet time in the dry season if people

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Speaker 2: were more careful or didn't deliberately light fires. So, I mean,

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Speaker 2: you know, they're certainly not coming from lightning or anything else.

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Speaker 2: These A majority of these are either deliberate or accidentally

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Speaker 2: lit it. You know, in those dry, windy conditions, fires

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Speaker 2: start very easily, but they're extremely difficult to contain.

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Speaker 1: How frustrating is that? Then, you know, when you've got

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Speaker 1: all your volunteers, all your crews out there and you

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Speaker 1: know that that someone's either deliberately lit it or accidentally,

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Speaker 1: but either way, it's creating a huge amount of work.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, And look for Sunday, the fire that was in

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Speaker 2: Barios Springs that literally threatened the township of Berry Springs

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Speaker 2: and potentially the wildlife park and the rest of it.

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Speaker 2: You know, that was you know, the fire, that fire

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Speaker 2: itself was lit in bush land, but it traveled through

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Speaker 2: and that puts a lot of it creates a lot

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Speaker 2: of damage to the environment and potentially infrastructure. But you know, importantly,

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Speaker 2: my volunteers and staff slides at Stake trying to pull

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Speaker 2: this up. So we've reported the fires to police. We've

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Speaker 2: been doing that basically investigating as many as we can,

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Speaker 2: and the ones that you know, we feel that have

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Speaker 2: been suspiciously lit, we have been reporting them through.

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Speaker 1: Colleen talk us through that one in Berry Springs, how

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Speaker 1: close did it get to the township and also to

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Speaker 1: the Territory Wildlife Park and what kind of resourcing did

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Speaker 1: you need to get it under control?

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Speaker 2: She'd actually had some notes there for that one. We

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Speaker 2: have about we had about for Berry Springs. On Sunday,

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Speaker 2: we used the four six wing aircraft. We also had

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Speaker 2: two helicopters, one obviously directing the six swing for water

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Speaker 2: bombing and the other one to provide some intelligence from

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Speaker 2: the airs to the crew on the ground. We had

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Speaker 2: eighteen fire units on the ground that a combination of

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Speaker 2: three I think they were from three different brigades Labishida,

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Speaker 2: Berry Spring, Elizabeth Valley and also fire Our Ambush Fires

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Speaker 2: NTE staff as well. But then on the Sunday we

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Speaker 2: had another seven units you know, going out doing blackout.

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Speaker 2: So they because of the winds that obviously pick up

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Speaker 2: you know from about ten am that can restart the fires.

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Speaker 2: And we hate going back to a fire that we

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Speaker 2: contained the day before.

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Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I like. That's a huge amount

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Speaker 1: of resourcing required out there at Berry Springs. How is

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Speaker 1: everyone feeling like in the township as well?

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Speaker 2: Look at would have been would have been pretty scared

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Speaker 2: for residents and people in that area because there was

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Speaker 2: a lot of smoke. Obviously, I think they had to

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Speaker 2: close the road briefly, the Coxspin Road briefly. While while

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Speaker 2: some of that activity was close to the close to

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Speaker 2: the Cox Penrod, we were certainly trying to stop and

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Speaker 2: stop any spot overs. I think we've got one spot

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Speaker 2: over that they were able to get to. So it's

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Speaker 2: pretty it's pretty scary for people under those conditions. Interesting,

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Speaker 2: you know you hear people say it was a lovely

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Speaker 2: breezy day. Well, you know, we sort of hate those

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Speaker 2: days because buyers travel very fast.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm guilty of that, Colleen. And you know what,

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Speaker 1: on the weekend, I looked outside and I thought, oh,

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Speaker 1: it's a nice windy day, and then I thought, oh goodness,

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Speaker 1: I wonder how our fieries and how bush fires are going.

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Speaker 1: Because I'd started to see those emails coming through and

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Speaker 1: just how much you guys were heading out to And

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Speaker 1: I thought, it looks like it was an incredibly busy weekend.

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Speaker 2: Extremely and even you know, even even last night, yesterday

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Speaker 2: afternoon they had another another three fires. So again, you know,

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Speaker 2: no let up on a daily basis. So the words

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Speaker 2: smashed often comes to comes to mind at these times.

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Speaker 2: So you know, I just urge, I urge residents and

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Speaker 2: people to be really careful. You know, the other week

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Speaker 2: at least three of the fires or four of the

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Speaker 2: fires were started by lawn mails. Must be pretty dry

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Speaker 2: ground that they're mowing personally, But but yeah, so people

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Speaker 2: just need to be really really aware of the conditions

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Speaker 2: and what's going on in the area.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Colleen, how are the conditions looking for today and

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Speaker 1: over the coming days? Is there any reprieves the.

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Speaker 2: Big thigh here? So no, today's another another firebrand a.

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Speaker 2: So obviously we're looking at extreme fire weather conditions in

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Speaker 2: the dar rural and the Lichfieldshire and high in Kamali

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Speaker 2: and the coastal Vernon areas. So we're still looking at

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Speaker 2: dangerous fire weather condition. But it is you know, the

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Speaker 2: bironrology sort of inform us that the condition should ease

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Speaker 2: tomorrow and in coming days, so good time for us

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Speaker 2: to repair any vehicles and the rest of it. Hopefully

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Speaker 2: we won't see some of the crazy fires that we

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Speaker 2: have been Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, you know, a big shout out to all those volunteers,

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Speaker 1: to everybody with bushfires into to all our fires around

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Speaker 1: the territory. It sounds like it's been a really busy

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Speaker 1: time and we appreciate the work that you do and

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Speaker 1: also appreciate the fact that you've taken the time out

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Speaker 1: to have a chat with us this morning.

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Speaker 2: No worries, and I also would like to thank our

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Speaker 2: volunteers that they've done an amazing job on their days

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Speaker 2: off apparently, you know, certainly over the weekends and into

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Speaker 2: the evening and early day. Thank you, thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: All good on them and good on you as well. Colleen,

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

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you.