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Katie Woolf spoke with Assistant Chief Fire Officer Joshua Fischer · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now joining me in the studio this morning is the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Joshua Fisher.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you. Good morning, Katie mate. Did you
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: get any sleep last night?
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  Speaker 3: I've managed to get a couple of hours, but no
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  Speaker 3: busy night for our members.
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  Speaker 1: It was an incredibly busy night from what I can gather.
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  Speaker 1: I've seen plenty of photos sent through to us here
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  Speaker 1: at the station. Just how many fires did you guys
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: get called out to?
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  Speaker 3: So if we look at the permitted time period where
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  Speaker 3: fireworks could be led off by the public, so between
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  Speaker 3: six pm and eleven pm, we responded to three hundred
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  Speaker 3: and thirteen grass fires throughout the Northern territory. But if
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  Speaker 3: we look at our total figures, which includes yesterday and
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  Speaker 3: right up until this morning, it's three hundred and ninety
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  Speaker 3: three grass fires we've responded to in twenty four hours.
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  Speaker 2: Three hundred and ninety three. Did you say that's correct?
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  Speaker 3: Three?
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  Speaker 1: That's a phenomenal number of grass fires. How big are
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  Speaker 1: we talking in some of these cases? Like are they
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  Speaker 1: small kind of shrub fires or are they ones that
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  Speaker 1: take quite a bit of space.
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  Speaker 3: There was two sort of grass fires significance yesterday, so
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  Speaker 3: we had secoli in the area of Rostonia Avenue and
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  Speaker 3: south of Lambrick Avenue and a grass fire south of
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  Speaker 3: Tiger bren And Drive which resulted in the closure of
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  Speaker 3: Tiger brenn And Drive for a period of time. They
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  Speaker 3: were two critical incidents and they were about forty hectares
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  Speaker 3: and thirty hectares in size. And keep in mind that
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  Speaker 3: might sound small, but in the context that they're in
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  Speaker 3: a pre urban environment around Palmerston, that's pretty significant.
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  Speaker 1: Some of the photos that I've seen, they don't like
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  Speaker 1: it doesn't look as though the fires are all that
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  Speaker 1: far away from properties. I don't know whether that's sort
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  Speaker 1: of you know, that is correct or not. Were they
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  Speaker 1: far away from homes?
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  Speaker 3: No, they were right in behind homes and property right
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  Speaker 3: throughout everywhere that we responded to. So our volunteers, our
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  Speaker 3: career staff, our auxiliaries and track station workers in more
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  Speaker 3: regional remote areas of Northern Territory have done a significant
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  Speaker 3: job in keeping territory and safe.
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  Speaker 1: How many how many fieries and volunteers were working last night.
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  Speaker 3: So for the Fire and Rescue Service, we're looking at
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  Speaker 3: about two hundred members overall. That includes our career fire fighters,
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  Speaker 3: in our urban centers and our auxiliaries and our volunteers
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  Speaker 3: throughout northern Territory in our twenty six locations.
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  Speaker 1: So how on earth when you've got that number of
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  Speaker 1: staff and you're almost double, like the number of fires
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  Speaker 1: is almost double the number of staff you've got, how
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  Speaker 1: on earth do you get to everything?
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  Speaker 3: It's certainly juggling priorities and trying to get to the
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  Speaker 3: most important fire that we can with the intel that
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  Speaker 3: we have available. They certainly had a very very busy night,
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  Speaker 3: and hats off to them our fire service. You know,
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  Speaker 3: we were a very small fire service in terms of
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  Speaker 3: our jurisdictional size. You know, we don't have a large
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  Speaker 3: body of members and to attend, you know, three hundred
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  Speaker 3: and ninety three fires in a twenty four hour period
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  Speaker 3: is significant and I don't think there's another jurisdiction that
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  Speaker 3: could keep up with that demand and have the same result.
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  Speaker 2: How does that compare to previous years?
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  Speaker 3: So if we look at twenty nineteen, for the same
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  Speaker 3: reporting period, there was two hundred and nineteen fires between
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  Speaker 3: first to July and second July. So we're not even
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  Speaker 3: through second to July yet, and we're at three hundred
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  Speaker 3: and ninety three, So a signific can increase and so would.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: You attribute that to the fact that it has obviously
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  Speaker 1: happened later in the year and the conditions are dryer.
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  Speaker 3: I'm assuming well, I think if we take into the
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  Speaker 3: context that we had above avery rainfall, so we went
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  Speaker 3: into this fire season with above normal bush fire potential
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  Speaker 3: through to the end of August, we had in some
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  Speaker 3: areas of that urban environment a decrease in the amount
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  Speaker 3: of plan fuel reduction burning. It was achieved before it
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  Speaker 3: got too dangerous to do so. And then the fact
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  Speaker 3: that we've had fireworks in a landscape and that has
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  Speaker 3: resulted in ignitions.
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  Speaker 2: Now all of those fires under control.
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  Speaker 3: Now, yeah, at this time they are under control. We've
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  Speaker 3: got an enhanced level of crewe in again today to
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  Speaker 3: monitor those fires, particularly the two in Palmerston. We're also
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  Speaker 3: still undertaking investigation with regards to a suspicious rubbish spin
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  Speaker 3: fire in Yarrawonga which did damage a building, so as
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  Speaker 3: an investigation there, and I also should mention that not
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  Speaker 3: only did we attend to those grass fires, we also
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  Speaker 3: had an additional twenty four rubbishpin fires, five reported structure fires.
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  Speaker 3: Has Matt job here in dewin, as well as automated
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  Speaker 3: fire alarms, smoke complaints and a road crash rescue to
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  Speaker 3: contend with during the evening MT.
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  Speaker 1: I've got to tell you I was keeping an eye
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  Speaker 1: on that on the incident map last night, and to
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  Speaker 1: be really blunt about it, I was thinking, holy shit,
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  Speaker 1: how our fire is going to be able to get
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  Speaker 1: to everything?
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  Speaker 2: Like, how are you guys managing everything?
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  Speaker 1: It looked like it was phenomenally busy in terms of
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  Speaker 1: we know that no one was in jured, right, so
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  Speaker 1: we managed to keep people safe in that sense, people
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  Speaker 1: weren't injured. What about when it comes to those structures?
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  Speaker 1: Was there much damage to property or to structures?
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  Speaker 3: The only reported damage that we have is with that
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  Speaker 3: suspicious rubbishpin fire. So it's a real testament to our
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  Speaker 3: professional crews, both their crew and our volunteers that have
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  Speaker 3: worked extremely hard in that five hour period but continued
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  Speaker 3: writing through two am this morning, and then our normal
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  Speaker 3: crewing that have contended with further grass fires through the
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  Speaker 3: early hours today. It's a real hats off and credit
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  Speaker 3: to them, our rural volunteers through Humpty Do Virginia Be's
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Creek How it springs, Coupina they spent the majority of
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  Speaker 3: their time in Palmerston assisting our career members in combating
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  Speaker 3: the large number of fires that we had in the
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  Speaker 3: Palmeston region.
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  Speaker 1: Honestly, I think the whole community is just thinking to
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  Speaker 1: themselves this morning, thank goodness for our fires, for all
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  Speaker 1: of those volunteers, Thank goodness for the work that you
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  Speaker 1: guys did overnight to keep everybody safe and to ensure
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  Speaker 1: that nobody's homes were lost. That even when those fires
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  Speaker 1: got closed to properties in Palmerston, that everything was done
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  Speaker 1: to make sure that everybody stayed safe. So, like you said,
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  Speaker 1: and I'll repeat it, real hats off to all of
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  Speaker 1: our firees, to all of you for ensuring that that
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  Speaker 1: was the case.
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  Speaker 3: One hundred percent. You know, it's you know, our volunteers
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  Speaker 3: and our staff for a testament to our service and
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  Speaker 3: the effort that they put in last night is can't
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  Speaker 3: be understated. It was really tough. They were very, very busy.
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  Speaker 3: They went from fire to fire and they've done so
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  Speaker 3: professionally and have kept territory and safe.
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  Speaker 1: Now with that fire in Yarrawanga, there was their extensive
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  Speaker 1: damage or how how bad was that fire?
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  Speaker 3: It's damaged to the outside of the building at this time,
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  Speaker 3: but with police, they're reviewing the circumstances of that and
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  Speaker 3: hopefully we'll be able to determine that cause and hopefully
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  Speaker 3: some follow up action as a result.
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  Speaker 1: Have people been fairly well behaved in terms of not
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  Speaker 1: continuing to let off fireworks after eleven o'clock last night.
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  Speaker 3: Look, I was in the city operating from our incident
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  Speaker 3: management team and I certainly did see fireworks continue to
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: be let off on the skyline looking north over Darwin. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 3: there were a number of sort of matters that police
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  Speaker 3: did attend to in Darwin City with respect to sort
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  Speaker 3: of isolated reports of misuse of fireworks. So namely, people
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  Speaker 3: letting off fireworks out are moving vehicles towards buildings and objects,
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  Speaker 3: so really stuff that is just not acceptable. It's a
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  Speaker 3: privilege to use fireworks and to celebrate the way that
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  Speaker 3: we do here in Northern Territory and people need to
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  Speaker 3: respect that. Unfortunately, we also did have a couple of
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  Speaker 3: fies that we've investigated ahead of the six pm start time,
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  Speaker 3: where at this point in time it looks like they're
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  Speaker 3: caused by fireworks, and I know that at this time
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  Speaker 3: one individual has been issued infringement for that they let
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  Speaker 3: off a firework on their property ahead of the six
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  Speaker 3: pm time frame and it's subsequently coarsify, which GMMB has
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  Speaker 3: responded to.
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  Speaker 1: Hey with those bin fires, like is that why do
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  Speaker 1: people let them off in? Why do people let them
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  Speaker 1: off in bins?
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  Speaker 2: Or what's the go with that?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think most of it can be attributed to
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  Speaker 3: people generally trying to pick up their rubbish, and I
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  Speaker 3: think it's just that they actually haven't cooled them down,
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  Speaker 3: they haven't put water on them, they haven't waited for
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  Speaker 3: them to the heat to go out of them, and
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  Speaker 3: subsequently it causes it an ignition in the bin.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, right, How.
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  Speaker 1: Are all of you guys feeling this morning? How are
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  Speaker 1: fires feeling? Is everyone pretty exhausted?
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  Speaker 3: Most definitely those members that were on last night, they'll
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  Speaker 3: be pretty well tired. They'll be resting today, but they'll
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  Speaker 3: be keen to get back out there and keep territory
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  Speaker 3: and safe again on their next shift.
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  Speaker 2: Well on behalf of all of the territory.
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  Speaker 1: Everyone who listens to the show, thank you and thank
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  Speaker 1: all of your teams, all of yourolunteers for all of
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  Speaker 1: the hard work that you put in last night. I
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  Speaker 1: know you must have been absolutely run off your feet
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  Speaker 1: looking at some of those fires. I know that the
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  Speaker 1: residents that live nearby would be so incredibly grateful for the.
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  Speaker 2: Work that you did.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you, we appreciate it.
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  Speaker 1: Now, well, thank you very much for still taking the
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  Speaker 1: time to come in and talk to us this morning, even.
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  Speaker 2: Though you've been working all night. So Josh, thank you,
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  Speaker 2: we appreciate it.