Resources from New South Wales and South Australia have been called into the Northern Territory to battle a blaze four times the size of the ACT. Thick smoke has prompted authorities to issue a health alert for Tennant Creek and surrounds with the fire expected to continue well into the week.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 Skies over the Barclay shrouded in smoke as 10,000 square kilometres of dry bushland go
00:07 up in flames.
00:10 Well above one of our biggest that we've had, certainly one of the biggest ones I've been
00:13 involved in.
00:14 Crews working day and night to battle the blaze east of Tennant Creek, which has now
00:19 jumped the Barclay Highway.
00:21 We've got about a million head of cattle in the Barclay region alone at this time, so
00:25 we're really concerned about trying to hold this fire up and other fires so that those
00:30 cattle aren't impacted.
00:30 Spreading rapidly and advancing west towards Tennant Creek, crews setting up fire breaks
00:35 to hold the blaze back from the town.
00:38 Strong winds testing volunteers and pastoralists who are already stretched to the limits.
00:43 So we're working continuously to try and get rotations down there and get our people off
00:48 the fire ground and give them some respite. This means that people work some really long
00:52 hours.
00:53 The Emergency Management Council in Darwin have called for backup, with two South Australian
00:58 strike teams due to arrive on Wednesday. A New South Wales expert also flown in to analyse
01:03 the fire's spread.
01:05 The situation is changing rapidly and authorities say it could be more than a week before the
01:10 blaze is brought under control.
01:12 Water bombers were diverted this afternoon to a separate fire on the outskirts of Tennant
01:16 Creek, which also destroyed at least one home.
01:20 Part of the Barclay Highway was closed to traffic during the day, leaving truckies and
01:24 travellers stranded on either side.
01:27 There's probably about 10 or 12 road trains banked up there over off to my left there,
01:33 parked at the moment.
01:34 And with the whole of the territory declared a fire danger area until March, firefighters
01:40 are gearing up for a dangerous season ahead.
01:42 [BLANK_AUDIO]