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2010 Bushfire Season

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Tennant Creek Bushfires

posted Oct 26, 2010 10:17 PM by Frank Dunstan   [ updated Oct 26, 2010 10:42 PM ]

The following article and photos provided by Justin Hankinson and Bushfires NT:

Saturday 23 October 2010

Been fairly quite in Tennant Creek the last two years, so we’re making up for it with a brief, but busy fire season this year. If you remember we had hell of a season in 2007. Burnt out so much we’ve not had a lot since. Troy, Phil Noble and I did have to go tackle a fire east of town the night before the one in the article, about 20 km south east of town with about a 5 to 7 km front. We had some luck with us and were able to pull it up fairly quickly.

We had a good combined effort over the weekend. (The next morning for Troy and I) It was an NTFRS fire.

We had BF3, BF5 and TC01 in action along with the bushfire loader.

NTFRS had RGFU 311, Reserve GFU 59 and Medium Tanker 916 at work.

Check out the NTPFES media release.

As Nathan says in the article, great effort by all concerned. (He did a damn good job as Incident Controller).

Sorry, did not have much time to take happy snaps.

I think RFCO Troy took the two photos in the article. I can verify that I put together the map.

Cheers

Justin Hankinson

…

Just to add to the story a bit.

As mentioned I had been out the previous night tying up a more regional fire. Troy woke up early the next morning to check the fire, heading out to the area about 6am

I had a bit of a sleep in and then headed out to check a number of fire breaks to the south of town. After completing the task I headed back to town.

I had been keeping in touch with both Bushfires RFCO Troy Monckton and with NTFRS Acting OIC Nathan Ferguson. By coincidence Nathan and I agreed it would be a good idea for us to take a tour of the breaks protecting the east side of town when I arrived back in town. Breaks are within the NTFRS area.

At about 10 km out of town I called Nathan on the radio and arranged to pick him up from his residence. As I came a bit closer to town I noticed smoke, very, very rapidly building up. I called Nathan back on the radio. I think it took Nathan less than 30 seconds to put a page out.

Nathan got his tour of the break on the east side of town. A lot longer one than planned.






Wildfire Meade Road

posted Oct 16, 2010 11:46 PM by Frank Dunstan   [ updated Oct 16, 2010 11:56 PM ]

Units from Darwin River and Livingstone Volunteer Bushfire Brigades attended a wildfire on Meade Road, Darwin River this afternoon.

Fortunately, there were only relatively light winds making the fire easy to control. Heavy scrub made a direct attack too difficult, so it was back-burnt from fire trails around the perimeter. A lot of pandanus caused spot overs, mainly on the western and southern flanks.

Last night it rained for more than 3 hours, making today's fire ban a little surprising. However, this block had a lot of fuel that burnt well, especially in the occasional wind gusts.

People are cautioned not to be complacent with fire at this time of year, despite the early rains. Sunshine and winds quickly dry the bush, making it very flammable.

Berry Springs Bushfires

posted Sep 20, 2010 6:44 PM by Frank Dunstan   [ updated Oct 5, 2010 8:56 PM ]

There have been some very large deliberately lit wildfires in the Berry Springs area this year.

On Sunday evening (19 September) a fire was lit on a large vacant crown land area near the Gun Club on Cox Peninsula Road. An initial attempt at a scrub bashing flank attack was abandoned because of the speed and intensity of the fire front. It was then decided to withdraw and back burn the whole area from established fire breaks. This would give maximum safety to fire fighters and minimise damage to fire units.

Crews were split into three sectors and a co-ordinated back burn carried out. A late wind change made burning along Cox Peninsula Road potentially hazardous and apologies to all motorists who were inconvenienced by road closures. Then it started to rain, dampening back burning on Middle Arm Road, which flared up again in dry windy conditions the following day.

Late Monday afternoon fire crews were out again for a further flare up that threatened properties on Finn Road.

There was only bush burnt, with no assets under direct threat.

Howard Springs Bushfire

posted Sep 17, 2010 5:18 AM by Frank Dunstan   [ updated Oct 17, 2010 4:57 PM ]

On Monday 13 September 2010 a major wildfire burnt out large areas of Howard Springs.

Fortunately, no homes were destroyed or lives lost due to a massive effort by Bushfires NT and NTFRS, ably assisted by fixed and rotary winged water bombing aircraft.

Watch the ABC Stateline report - it tells a much better story than I can.

In the Stateline report it is implied that this was the worst fire in a decade (for the Darwin rural area). Check out the page on the Darwin River bushfires of September 2006 and decide for yourself. Methinks some people have very short memories - or is Darwin River considered too far out to count?


Thanks to Barbara for this letter - it's very much appreciated.

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