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Speaker 1: Well, we know that Bushfires NT are battling a number

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Speaker 1: of major fires in central Australia, some out of control,

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Speaker 1: resulting in the closure of a national park and also

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Speaker 1: threatening key roads. It has been a tough few weeks

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Speaker 1: for staff, for volunteers, rangers and indeed landholders who've banded

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Speaker 1: together to battle those fires. Now joining us on the

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Speaker 1: line for an update on the situation is Bushfires NT

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Speaker 1: Fire Incident Control Officer Tony Fuller. Good morning to you,

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Speaker 1: Tony s here.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie mate.

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Speaker 1: It's a bit ironic, I guess, because I'm looking out

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Speaker 1: my window this morning and it looks like it's going

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Speaker 1: to bucket down. But that is not the case across

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Speaker 1: the rest of the Northern Territory, is it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and no confuses us some days two looking out

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Speaker 2: the window and seeing all the rain and realizing we've

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Speaker 2: got a holigo fires across the top of the rest

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Speaker 2: of the territory.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. How many bushfires are you guys currently responding to?

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Speaker 2: Look at the moment, there's about thirty eight act fires

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Speaker 2: burning around the territory that we're looking at, so there's

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Speaker 2: obviously others around that passed us, and that in the

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Speaker 2: middle of nowhere that we don't not particularly worry about,

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Speaker 2: but there are thirty eight fires of significance at the

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Speaker 2: moment that we're keeping an eye on.

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Speaker 1: What areas do they span across.

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Speaker 2: Basically from Catherine south to the border.

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Right? And are there still threats to highways and

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Speaker 1: major roads at this point in time or what ones

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Speaker 1: are you keeping a bit of a closer eye on.

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Speaker 2: I guess well, the Davenport Range is probably the main

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Speaker 2: one we're keeping an eye on. That's been burning since

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Speaker 2: about the ninth of October I think it started, so

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Speaker 2: that's gone right through and estimates at the moment about

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Speaker 2: eighty percent of the park has been affected by the

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Speaker 2: fire itself. It moves through the ranges and pops out

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Speaker 2: at different locations, so that one's been going a fair while.

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Speaker 2: So there's still some smoke around for that one, and

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Speaker 2: we're just monitoring that to see if we get some

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Speaker 2: pretty strong winds, it may take a run again, and

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Speaker 2: we just have to reassess and work out where we're

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Speaker 2: going to try and stop it.

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Speaker 1: So tiny which national parks have had to be closed.

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Speaker 2: At the moment, the Davenport and also the Carlukalu or

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Speaker 2: Devil's Marbles has been closed until the fourth of November

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Speaker 2: of the stage, just through potentially the potential threat that

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Speaker 2: that fire from the Davenport will take running to that area.

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Speaker 2: We had Stanley Chasm closed yesterday. That's I believe it's

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Speaker 2: been reopened. That's a private company that run to day.

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Speaker 2: But the Larapiner trials either side that chasm is closed

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Speaker 2: at this stage.

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Speaker 1: And do you know what has caused these fires? Are

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Speaker 1: any of them deliberately?

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Speaker 2: Lease? Yeah, some of them, definitely. We've noticed quite a

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Speaker 2: few that have started on the side of highways, but

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Speaker 2: there's a significant number of these that have also been

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Speaker 2: started by dry lightning, So they're a mixture. At this

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Speaker 2: time of the year with the storms going through and

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Speaker 2: the lightning strikes, we're getting a lot more in remote localities.

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Speaker 2: But there certainly is a pattern of roadside ignitions going

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Speaker 2: on as well.

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Speaker 1: And like roadside ignitions meaning like people doing it on purpose?

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Speaker 1: Are they throwing a cigarette butt out their window? What's

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Speaker 1: going on?

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Speaker 2: I'd say majority of actually deliberately. There's few that might

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Speaker 2: be accidental, but majority on the roadsides are generally, Yeah.

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Speaker 1: What is wrong with people? Why on earth would you

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Speaker 1: light a fire on the side of the road.

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Speaker 2: Oh well, different different ideas and different people. I'm afraid, yeah,

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Speaker 2: I do not know.

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Speaker 1: Like you just think to yourself, My goodness, what goes

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Speaker 1: through people's brains, especially then when you understand, like when

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Speaker 1: you get a better understanding of what is acquired to

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Speaker 1: then get some of these blazers under control. And from

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Speaker 1: what I can gather, you've had Cruise battling blazers for

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Speaker 1: like some time. How's everyone holding up.

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Speaker 2: Well, we've actually been fighting for since May from the

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Speaker 2: top end or April actually, so it's been continuous for us.

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Speaker 2: But we're just moving our staff down into Central Australia.

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Speaker 2: We've got a crew of volunteers that are swapping out today.

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Speaker 2: So we've had three volunteers at Tennant Creek for the

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Speaker 2: last week. They'll be replaced by another three who were

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Speaker 2: flying down this morning so they'll be in station. Then

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Speaker 2: we've got additional cruise station in Tenant Creek just to

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Speaker 2: respond to the Davenport and the Berkley if needed. We've

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Speaker 2: also I've got cruise that have moved down to Catherine,

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Speaker 2: so we've increased the staffing levels in that office because

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Speaker 2: we've had a fire on the Carpenteria Highway near three

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Speaker 2: Ways I think it was, yeah, Highway in So we're there.

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Speaker 2: I been there for the last couple of days doing

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Speaker 2: a holy of the burning. So they're still act be

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Speaker 2: fire close to the Carventary Highway.

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Speaker 1: Goodness mate. Well, you know, hats off to all the staff,

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Speaker 1: to all the volunteers, everybody doing what they can to,

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Speaker 1: you know, to get all of these fires under control.

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Speaker 1: What is your message for territorians this morning, particularly, you know,

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Speaker 1: those that are in those regions that are being impacted

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Speaker 1: by these bushfires.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, before so that hats off a lot of

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Speaker 2: the past lists. They've been doing it really hard, some

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Speaker 2: really big fires on some of the partial releases that

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Speaker 2: we haven't got to and they've been managing by themselves

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Speaker 2: or with neighbors, so you know, some of them have

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Speaker 2: been battling fires for a couple of weeks now. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and some of the damage reports were getting through this

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Speaker 2: and significant losses of pastor land out there at the moment.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, our message is, look, please don't light fires

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Speaker 2: on the side of the road. You don't know where

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Speaker 2: it's going to end up, who's going to impact Even

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Speaker 2: if we don't have a fire band. Just be really

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Speaker 2: careful with your campfires, make sure they're out, don't leave

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Speaker 2: them unattended. And if you see f are, it doesn't

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Speaker 2: matter where it is. We ask people ring triple zero

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Speaker 2: first and I'll pass on to us whether or not

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Speaker 2: we need to respond to.

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Speaker 1: Very very good advice. Well, Tony Fuller, mate, thanks very

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

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Speaker 1: everybody out there working hard to get these fires under control.

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Speaker 1: And you know, it sounds like it's been a massive

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Speaker 1: year really fighting fires since April.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it certainly has. But yeah, interesting the way the

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Speaker 2: patterns from.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you, thanks mate. We'll talk to you again soon.

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Speaker 1: Thanks Tony,