Emergency services are urging Barkly landowners to prepare for catastrophic fire conditions and ensure they have a bushfire survival plan ready.
Acting Chief Fire Officer Joshua Fischer said a fire was reported to 000 about 3pm on Wednesday, and it was determined it was rapidly moving in a north-west direction towards Tennant Creek.
Around 6pm that evening, Bushfires NT and NT Fire and Rescue Service crews jointly conducted a number of backburning operations to protect the community.
“Unfortunately, the fire did burn through Peko Mine where several disused machinery was impacted by the fire,” said Mr Fischer.
Mr Fischer said during the firefighting efforts, the fire was elevated to a watch and act alert level, and evacuations were being considered at one point.
“With the high fuel load, the fire behaviour and fire weather at the moment, there was the likelihood that fire could impact properties.
“Thankfully, though, we had confidence in our strategies implemented, and we did not need to evacuate.
“Now the fire is back to the advice message however, there are two active areas of concern.
“One is Phillip Creek Station to the northwest of Tennant Creek where there are a number of outstations we are currently assessing in terms of preparedness and potential impact on those buildings. We don’t believe there are people on those outstations at this time.
“The other area is southeast of Tennant Creek where there is a finger of fire that has broken containment lines and are assessing backburning strategies and may include backburning on the Stuart Highway to prevent fire crossing west of the highway.”
Additional resources have been dispatch from Alice Springs and Darwin and include a fixed-win waterbombing aircraft from Bushfires NT and a rotary win helicopter to conduct aerial surveillance which has waterbombing capability if needed.
“The Barkly is experiencing really dangerous fire conditions, so there is a fire ban in place for the Barkly North and the Barkly South,” said Mr Fischer.
“There are small pockets of catastrophic fire danger particularly in the Barkly North, driven by high winds and wind gusts up to 50km/h.
“In these conditions, it’s important to know we may not have enough vehicles for every single property.
“Landowners need to ensure they have a bushfire survival plan and know what to do ahead of that fire and whether they want to leave early.
“They need to be prepared – establish fire breaks, have your fire management plan and now ensure you have a bushfire survival plan.”
For information on a bushfire survival plans, visit https://nt.gov.au/emergency/bushfire/prepare-and-plan/survival-plans For all Bushfires NT bushfires information, visit https://securent.nt.gov.au/respond/ bushfire-alerts.
This article appeared in Tennant & District Times, 27 October 2023.
