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Katie Woolf spoke with Bushfires NT Chief Fire Control Officer Andrew Turner · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We are heading across right now to catch up with
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  Speaker 1: bushfires NTS. Andrew Turner, Good morning to you, Andrew.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Okay, Katie, how are you not too bad?
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  Speaker 1: Mate? I understand it's been a pretty busy weekend for
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  Speaker 1: you guys. And in fact, on Friday morning we had
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: keysy Epuric on the show and I know that added
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  Speaker 1: her property some fairly significant fires. Talk us through what's
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  Speaker 1: gone on over the last couple of days.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it certainly was a busy week last week, possibly
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  Speaker 2: one of the busiest of the season so far. We
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  Speaker 2: had two fires that went to watch an act on Friday,
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  Speaker 2: which is almost the highest level of warning that we
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  Speaker 2: can put out. Both fires took a fair bit of
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  Speaker 2: effort to bring under control. In addition to that, we're
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  Speaker 2: also assisting the Fire and Rescue Service with a number
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  Speaker 2: of their fires as well. Pretty busy. And then over
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  Speaker 2: the weekend the humidity came back in with a bit
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  Speaker 2: of vengeance and we were able to rest and tidy
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  Speaker 2: up a bit after those couple of fires.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, And what kind of conditions are we expecting
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  Speaker 1: for the week Are we expecting some of that humidity
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  Speaker 1: to stay in place?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, it's a real mixed bag. So tomorrow the next
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  Speaker 2: dry spell starts. The surge reaches the Barkley and Gregory
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  Speaker 2: fire weather forecast areas from tonight and slowly moves northwards.
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  Speaker 2: In the meantime up here tomorrow, the Bureau is talking
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  Speaker 2: about a sixty or seventy percent chance of rain closer
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  Speaker 2: to the coast before the dry spell hits us. And
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  Speaker 2: then so on Wednesday and Thursday, they're expecting severefire weather
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  Speaker 2: rain right up until the time where we get SEVEREFI
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  Speaker 2: whether it's a really.
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  Speaker 1: Mixed bag, and so when are we expecting that severe
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  Speaker 1: fire weather.
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  Speaker 2: So it's moving through the bottom of the base of
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  Speaker 2: the territory now, it's expected to be in the Barkley
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  Speaker 2: by midnight tonight and quite a blowy morning there, and
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  Speaker 2: then the Egory region tomorrow before reaching the top end
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  Speaker 2: on Wednesday.
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  Speaker 1: All right, now, Andrew, you know, the big question I
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  Speaker 1: think on everybody's lips, particularly for those that live out
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  Speaker 1: in the rural area, is what kind of conditions are
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  Speaker 1: you anticipating and preparing for for those celebrations which we're
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  Speaker 1: postponed for Territory Day until the twenty ninth, which is Sunday.
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  Speaker 2: The preparations are much the same as we undertake each year.
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  Speaker 2: You know, the volunteers are obviously ready and out in
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  Speaker 2: the community. We've got arrangements in place with our agencies,
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  Speaker 2: including the Fire and Rescue Service. Our public messaging and
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  Speaker 2: awareness goes up a big notch just to make people
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  Speaker 2: aware of the implications of fires. And we also put
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  Speaker 2: in place of incident management arrangements, so we have our
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  Speaker 2: duty officer has an incidet management team behind and we've
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  Speaker 2: got more people on call ready to go. The difference
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  Speaker 2: I guess this year is that fires later in the
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  Speaker 2: fire season are generally more difficult to control and take
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  Speaker 2: a longer period to extinguish. So that's the key message
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  Speaker 2: that we're getting out. If a fire does start and
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  Speaker 2: we need to know about it early and we need
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  Speaker 2: to ensure that it's completely extinguished.
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  Speaker 1: And are you sort of comfortable, you know, are you
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  Speaker 1: comfortable with the lay of the land? I suppose when
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  Speaker 1: it comes to Sunday and those fireworks being left off.
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  Speaker 2: The Bureau of Meteorology we work closely with and we'll
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  Speaker 2: get a really good idea of what the forecast, whether
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  Speaker 2: it's like a little bit closer to the day, generally
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  Speaker 2: three or four days out, we've got a pretty good
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  Speaker 2: indication of how windy and how dry it's going to be,
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  Speaker 2: so we'll have a better idea. But regardless whether it
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  Speaker 2: falls on a particularly windy day or not, the preparations
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  Speaker 2: are much the same. We need to ensure that people
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  Speaker 2: understand that they're fuel the grasses and whatever around their
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  Speaker 2: property is managed, that we've got fire breaks in place.
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  Speaker 2: They are going to let off fireworks, and they obviously
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  Speaker 2: look out for any animals on the property and make
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  Speaker 2: sure that they've got the resources required to put it
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  Speaker 2: out if one of these fireworks does get going, and
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  Speaker 2: make sure it's all dowsed entirely. Take care with them there.
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  Speaker 2: They can be quite dangerous and you need to report
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  Speaker 2: any fires. That's the key messaging that we'll be pushing out.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, just back to those other fires over the over
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  Speaker 1: the weekend and towards the end of last week. Was
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  Speaker 1: there much in the way of property lost or did
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  Speaker 1: you manage to keep keep you know, most of those
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  Speaker 1: properties pretty safe.
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  Speaker 2: The fires that we attended, there was no reported property
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  Speaker 2: that was damaged or lost. We did assist with the
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  Speaker 2: fire and rescue service at a fire at Holts and
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  Speaker 2: unsure whether there was any losses at that particular fire.
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  Speaker 2: We managed the aircraft in that particular incidence, touch Wood,
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  Speaker 2: it was nothing that's been reported as yet.
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  Speaker 1: Well, let's hope that towards the end of the week,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we don't get two windy conditions, that things
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  Speaker 1: stay pretty calm, or we're certainly hoping that is the case,
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  Speaker 1: particularly as we head into to those fireworks day celebrations
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  Speaker 1: of the day when people are going to be able
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  Speaker 1: to let them off. Andrew Turner, it's always good to
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  Speaker 1: catch up with you. Thank you for your time this morning.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Thanks very much, Katie, thank you