Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Acting Deputy Chief Fire Office Joshua Fischer
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: We know that bushfire season has begun, and joining us
- 0:03Speaker 1: on the line is the acting Deputy Chief Fire Officer
- 0:07Speaker 1: Joshua Fisher. Good morning to.
- 0:08Speaker 2: You, josh Good morning, Katie.
- 0:10Speaker 1: Great have you on the show. It's always this time
- 0:13Speaker 1: of the year that we really need to make sure
- 0:15Speaker 1: that we're prepared as possible for bushfire season, isn't it.
- 0:20Speaker 2: Most certainly is obviously the dry seasons here, and with
- 0:23Speaker 2: that is the smell of smoke that's constantly in the
- 0:25Speaker 2: air as landowners are getting out in about and trying
- 0:28Speaker 2: to manage the fuel load that is on their properties.
- 0:31Speaker 1: But I'm a townie, so I live in town. I
- 0:34Speaker 1: don't have to really clear my block. But I know
- 0:36Speaker 1: plenty of people that live out in the rural area
- 0:38Speaker 1: and beyond they do spend quite some time getting their
- 0:42Speaker 1: blocks ready for the fire season.
- 0:44Speaker 2: Yeah, they certainly do. It's really important that for us
- 0:48Speaker 2: as firefighters, in the event that a fire does occur,
- 0:50Speaker 2: that we have access to the property. Under the Foreign
- 0:53Speaker 2: Emergency Act, it's responsibility of the land owner to have
- 0:56Speaker 2: that four meter fire break within the primitive boundary of
- 0:59Speaker 2: their property and around any built infrastructures such as their
- 1:02Speaker 2: home or a shed. It's really important to have that
- 1:05Speaker 2: green belt if they can. It's nice, lush green grass
- 1:07Speaker 2: around their home. If they have that ability, just to
- 1:10Speaker 2: give that added protection that in the unlikely circumstance that
- 1:14Speaker 2: the fire does occur an impact on their land, that
- 1:16Speaker 2: their home is best prepared as possible.
- 1:18Speaker 1: And is that something that people should have already done
- 1:22Speaker 1: or is there still time to do that.
- 1:24Speaker 2: There is still time to do it. Obviously, in some
- 1:28Speaker 2: areas of our emergency response area, people might not have
- 1:32Speaker 2: access to some parts of their blockers. They may be
- 1:35Speaker 2: quite low lying and still have water contained within, and
- 1:39Speaker 2: so access to that area might be a little bit
- 1:42Speaker 2: impossible at this time. So there is still ample opportunity
- 1:45Speaker 2: for land owners to comply with the requirements of the Act.
- 1:48Speaker 2: But for those that are on sort of more drier land,
- 1:51Speaker 2: most certainly they should already have their fire break in place.
- 1:54Speaker 2: Thee curing of grass is rapidly occurring. We're seeing that
- 1:58Speaker 2: grass dry out, seeing gamber grass dry out, so fires
- 2:02Speaker 2: are occurring. We're seeing an increase in the turnout of
- 2:06Speaker 2: our crews, both volunteers and career firefighters. Two grass fuyres
- 2:10Speaker 2: that are occurring in the emergency response.
- 2:12Speaker 1: Area and Josh, are we expecting it to be a
- 2:16Speaker 1: pretty rough sort of fire season given we had all
- 2:19Speaker 1: that rain during the wheat.
- 2:21Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. It's been a great growing opportunity for grass
- 2:26Speaker 2: owing to that above every rainfall. So we are seeing
- 2:30Speaker 2: and increasing fuel loads in our pre urban environment more
- 2:34Speaker 2: particularly where there is gamber grass and mission graps other
- 2:37Speaker 2: introduced grass species. So it's really important that land owners
- 2:41Speaker 2: are preparing, that they're mowing, they're slashing, they're getting out
- 2:45Speaker 2: there managing their property for the risk of fire. It's
- 2:48Speaker 2: really important. You know, we can't be there on the
- 2:51Speaker 2: day when there's an unprepared property and attempt to try
- 2:55Speaker 2: and save that home. That puts our firefighters at grave
- 2:58Speaker 2: risk if they're trying to protect property that is unmanaged.
- 3:01Speaker 1: So better to be well prepared early. I understand as well.
- 3:05Speaker 1: Even yesterday, I thought I'd seen alert come through that
- 3:08Speaker 1: there was a bush fire out at Berry Springs or
- 3:11Speaker 1: a bit further field. Was that correct?
- 3:14Speaker 2: Yeah, I understand that bush fires into would responding to
- 3:17Speaker 2: fires in their response area, and I believe that there
- 3:20Speaker 2: was one at Berry Springs, But we also had a
- 3:23Speaker 2: number of smaller wildfires that did occur in our emergency
- 3:26Speaker 2: response area yesterday, so you know the likelihood of fires
- 3:31Speaker 2: occurring is starting to increase. So on top of having
- 3:35Speaker 2: your fire breaks within your boundary, you must also have
- 3:37Speaker 2: a bush by survival plan. So that's knowing what you
- 3:41Speaker 2: will do on days where a fire may occur and
- 3:44Speaker 2: being able to communicate that to your family so that
- 3:46Speaker 2: everyone knows what actions you're going to take to survive.
- 3:49Speaker 1: And Josh, I understand you weren't or you didn't have
- 3:52Speaker 1: to go out to the hotel that was where the
- 3:54Speaker 1: fire was overnight, but have you still got are there
- 3:58Speaker 1: still officers out there? And I would suspect that there's
- 4:00Speaker 1: still those investigations underway.
- 4:03Speaker 2: Yeah, that's correct. We've got a fire investigator on site
- 4:05Speaker 2: this morning to determine the course of that fire.
- 4:07Speaker 1: Well, josh Fisher, it's always good to catch up with you.
- 4:10Speaker 1: We really appreciate your time. Thanks so much for having
- 4:12Speaker 1: a chat with us.
- 4:13Speaker 2: Jeers, thanks y, thank you.
- 4:14Speaker 1: That is Acting Deputy Chief Fire Officer Joshua Fisher. There